Workshop to launch the Center for Labor and Society (CLS) / Centrul pentru Muncă și Societate (CMS)
📅 28–29 November 2025
📍 Faculty of Sociology and Social Work (FSAS–UBB), Room 7, Dostoievski 34, Cluj-Napoca
🔹 About the event
Work is changing — and so are its meanings.
New technologies, shifting welfare systems, and growing inequalities are reshaping how we live, work, and imagine society.
The new Center for Labor and Society invites you to a two-day workshop exploring labor as a site of power, inequality, and collective imagination.
Across three roundtables — Labor Research in CEE, Methods as Politics, and Labor Futures — we follow a shared thread: from post-socialist genealogies of labor research, through methodological politics, to the futures of work and collective possibility. We close with Labor Unbound, reflecting on how labor research can reclaim its public relevance and critical edge in a transforming world.
🔹 Program highlights
📅 Friday, 28 November
🕓 16:00 – Opening remarks
Anca Simionca (Dean, FSAS–UBB), Ionuț Földes (Head of Sociology Dept.), Oana Mateescu (Coordinator, CLS)
🕠 16:30–18:30 – Roundtable 1. Labor Research in Central and Eastern Europe
with Adam Mrozowicki (University of Wrocław), Aurora Trif (Dublin City University), Tibor T. Meszmann (Central European Labour Studies Institute), Radu Stochita (Cartel Alfa), Delia Badoi (Institutul de Cercetare a Calității Vieții)
Moderator: Sorin Gog (FSAS), Ioana Simina Popescu (University of Vienna)
🍷 18:30 – Reception & buffet
📅 Saturday, 29 November
☕ 11:00–13:00 – Roundtable 2. Methods as Politics: Studying Labor Today
with Don Kalb (University of Bergen) & Alina Cucu (UBB)
Moderators: Andreea Pascu & Alex Tucaliuc (FSAS)
🥗 13:00–14:00 – Lunch break
🕓 14:00–16:00 – Roundtable 3. Labor Futures
with Dora Fonseca (COLABOR), Valentin Niebler (Humboldt University), Tsvetelina Hristova (Aachen University), Maria-Luiza Apostolescu (independent researcher)
Moderators: Dana Domșodi (FSAS) & Bogdan Lungu (FSPAC)
☕ 16:00–16:30 – Coffee break
💬 16:30–18:00 – Wrap-up. Labor Unbound: Toward a Critical Agenda
All participants, moderated by Oana Mateescu (FSAS)
🔹 About CLS / CMS
The Center for Labor and Society (CLS) is a new interdisciplinary hub for research and collaboration on work, inequality, and social transformation.
Closely linked to the MA in Labor and Social Transformations, CLS connects research, teaching, and public dialogue on the politics of labor in Romania, Central and Eastern Europe and beyond.
🎯 Join us to celebrate the launch of CLS and take part in conversations about the futures of work, knowledge, and social change.
Language: English. Free participation. All welcome.
🔗 Hosted by the MA Labor and Social Transformations and the Center for Labor and Society (FSAS–UBB).
💡 This event is organized with the financial support of the Ministry of Education and Research.
🎨 Cover image & design by Talida Tămaș.
