Piecemeal work, activity, activation
The ongoing discussion around the concept of activity is an invitation to question the theoretical development of sociology of work, from the foundational works of the 1950s and 1960s, through several successive paradigmatic shifts, up to today’s issues. The theoretical reading we are pursuing is therefore that of a gradual turning away from practised work that has ended up focusing instead on the organization, at least among the most visible currents of academic and public space. Within this framework, we consider the notion of activity as an effort to refocus the sociological perspective on work in acts that are carried out and experienced by wage earners, and at the same time as an alternative to the notion of unspecialized work (under its allegedly interchangeable, cognitive or digital form).