(Facilitators Sirkka Heinonen, Amos Taylor, Markku Wilenius)
The concepts of peace and work are both complex entities. Each of
them can be approached from the premise of preferred futures. Peace
is one of the main objectives of futures research as already defined by
Ossip K. Flechtheim. Eliminating war does not reveal the full complexity
of peace – it is something more than the absence of war. Work, on the
other hand, is a desirable future for various reasons. It gives
subsistence, income and purpose in life. And yet, life without work may
not be necessarily meaningless. New societal innovations such as
basic income may change the trajectories of work. How these two
concepts concretely materialize themselves in society, in spaces –
especially in the new emerging societal transformation. Both concepts
are also socio-culturally contextualized, with a wide spectrum of
aspects, characteristics and manifestations. What happens when we
parallel and reflect upon these two complex concepts side by side,
what are the liminal spaces between them? Our workshop invites
attendants to identify paradoxes of peace and work, compare them,
deconstruct the paradoxes, and arrive at provocation–metamorphosis
of these two spheres.