Workshop: Critical WOP – outlook and actions

This is an open, interactive, participant-driven unconference workshop. Its organizers aim to develop a shared outlook into the future and discuss possible actions and trajectories for the Critical Work and Organizational (CWOP) stream of the broader Future of Work and Organizational Psychology (FOWOP) movement. Together with workshop participants, we aim to identify possible themes and topics of particular interest. By those means, we aim at further enhancing the conceptual and empirical developments of CWOP, including its organizational form and structure, visions and future planning of events and activities. A specific example for the latter is the EAWOP Small Group Meeting “Building the future of work and organizational psychology: Developing a practical toolkit”, scheduled for 21–23 September 2022 in Brussels, Belgium. The session organizers are looking forward to introducing the event, reporting their experiences in organizing it so far, and discussing opportunities for critical WOP researchers and others interested in this line of inquiry to participate by submitting proposals, attending, and offering insights. Further, organizers as well as participants will have the opportunity to share their personal observations and impressions of the last conference days. Questions guiding our discussions could include, but are not restricted to: “What happened (or changed) during the previous days? What seem to be emerging themes? Where do participants see CWOP going (e.g., in terms of contents, structure, processes etc.)? Where do they see converging (or diverging) theoretical (or epistemological) positions? What might be important next steps to take – in the short, medium and longer term?”. The organizers plan to subsequently compile the results of this discussion into a working document that will summarize the identified and emergent core themes and suggest future actions on organizing, promoting, teaching, implementing, and disseminating CWOP ideas, principles, values, and so on. Extending the discussion on the proposal for a handbook from the pre-conference session, we aim to deliberate possibilities for the use of multimedia (podcasts, YouTube channel) and other channels and activities to a promote and disseminate CWOP content (e.g., conference recordings). Other possible issues could relate to expanding and communicating ways to get involved with the various activities of the movement and strengthening their complementarity and continuity of activities beyond the upcoming follow-up event. Outcomes of this session are intended to be fed back to the CWOP steering committee and to inform and guide the future implementation and integration of activities and actions.