Opening Session : Work, the Destiny of Humanity

After discussing about investment during Les Rencontres Économiques 2014, Le Cercle des économistes has decided to focus on work in 2015. Some may interpret this choice as a quest for the economist’s coveted symmetry, since capital and labour are naturally cast as what they call the two «factors of production.» But it is misleading to conflate the two because we believe that by demoting labour to a mere factor of production, we would remain very far off the mark. It goes without saying that labour comes at a price and we will need to be spot on when describing this controversial aspect in our discussions, but work is, first and foremost, a fundamental social value. It also goes without saying that there is a labour market, one that is regulated and whose working needs to be analysed and criticised, but at the same time work cannot be reduced to a commodity. So let us face facts: there is nothing more foreign to «pure economics» than labour. Since religion has lost its long-held seat at the head of the moral table, work –and a lack thereof in times of widespread unemployment– is the very backbone of life in society and for each of us individually. Hence why to decipher what work has in store for us in the 21st century, this conference must step up efforts to gather insight from what all the human and social sciences have to offer: the institutions that shape the labour community, this comes from history and the political sciences; the division of labour, the ensuing solidarity and breakdown of social norms that it can cause –par excellence, that is where sociology comes in; worker protection, that is the domain of law; the general malaise at work, that is a job for psychology and perhaps psychoanalysis; and when mulling over the meaning of work, we most certainly should turn to the philosophers and even the theologians. In the traditional spirit of Les Rencontres, the first session aims to paint the broadest stroke for our exchange of ideas. Unquestionably, opening a discussion on work can lead to endless possibilities…