8th International Community, Work and Family Conference

Location: Malta

Time: Annually in May 

Families, organisations and communities face the challenges of the 21st century across diverse and rapidly changing contexts: the individual, organisational, societal and global. Organisation of work is changing, employment relations, family relations and gender relations are changing, as well as communities in relation to migration and changing welfare states.

We encourage contributions reflecting the diversity of workers and contexts.  The majority of research to date has focused on the work-life experiences of couples with young children and to some extent single parent families, with more recent focus on workers combining paid work and care for the elderly or the disabled and with other care responsibilities, such as singles without dependent children.

Moreover, the majority of the research focusses on professional workers employed in large organisations. Less attention is paid to less highly-educated workers and to those workers who work in small and medium sized organisations or who are self-employed. Furthermore, digitalisation, new (communication) technology and globalisation have changed expectations of when and where work is done, employment relations and the way people work together. Increasingly, work can be done any time, any place, blurring the boundaries between work and personal/family life. The rise of freelancers or solo self-employed as well as hybrid workers, has blurred the distinction between dependent and independent employment. In addition, communities are struggling with questions around the provision of care, gender equity, social mobility and inclusiveness.

The recognition of the interlinking forces at play across diverse and changing contexts, enhances our understanding of the dynamic and complex processes involved when studying the community, work and family interface. There is a need for innovative qualitative and quantitative research designs that conduct multi-level analysis, linking linking individual experiences to the workplace, the community and the national and wider global context. In challenging times, it is crucial to advance existing knowledge in the field, to develop new questions and theory, to extend existing research to under-researched groups of workers and contexts, to broaden the way in which we talk about the community, work and family interface.

Within this broad general framework, we welcome paper submissions from a broad range of disciplines, which address, theoretically or empirically, issues surrounding the multi-level and contextual approach to researching community, work and family. We also welcome papers which capture a multi-stakeholder perspective. In particular, we welcome submissions from diverse contexts, including national contexts beyond the Western World, as well as papers that broaden the way we investigate, view, and talk about the community, work and family interface.