International Karl Polanyi Society

Anke Hassel is Professor of Public Policy at the Hertie School of Governance. As a Sociologist, she researches the labor market, social policies in relation to work, the institutional foundations of business systems, labour rights and corporate social responsibility. She has published extensively on labour and policy making as well as the German political economy in relation to its transformation and dynamics. Prof. Hassel is a member of the Hightech Forum of the German federal government and has been Scientific Director of the Institute of Economic and Social Sciences (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation from 2016 to 2019. In 2024 she was appointed Fellow Economist for 2024 by European Commission. She is now the eigth Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor and will share her research and insights in this role.

“How is work organized in current times? What significance does work have in our lives and for social cohesion? These questions have gained urgent topicality; without taking them into account, individual and social designs for the future cannot be developed. Workload and lack of appreciation are important issues that also play a role in political satisfaction. The thesis of the “end of work” is a thing of the past. In the meantime, the perspective of a “flexibilised working society” dominates, in which more and more people are participating, but at the same time still has not solved the compatibility with work in relation to the family. 

The modern world of work, with its sometimes contradictory parts, is like a puzzle. In the lecture, Anke Hassel explains how social change, immigration, technologies and structural change are giving work a new meaning. Finally, she explains to what extent the boundary between work and leisure time is blurred and asks the question of whether the socialization of work leads to more or less freedom.”