Author archives: Joerg Markowitsch
Hikikomori — depression as rebellion?
What can Europe learn from Japan's experience dealing with NEET youth, those who are neither in employment nor training?
W‑o-W Filmscreening #1: Nursing shortage in the spotlight
Work-o-Witch invites to its first film screening to discuss the role of film in the professional training of nursing staff and as a medium for addressing skills shortages, on 10 November 2022, at the Arthouse-Cinema of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.
Educating Frank
"Educating Rita" (1983) is the undisputed favorite cinematic example of adult education research: rarely has social mobility through education been told in such a multifaceted and entertaining way. In the era of online teaching, it's worth revisiting the film with a focus on the second lead role, alongside Rita, the lecturer Frank, aka Michael Caine.
Trainspotters’ job interviews
Job interviews in feature films are rare. Nevertheless, film history has some special treats in store. From the point of view of public employment services, the interview scene from Trainspotting (1996) by Danny Boyle cannot be surpassed.
What‘s Work?
What’s labour? What’s employment? And how have they changed over the centuries? Leading scholars from Europe, the US, China and Africa reflect on these and related questions in a six-part documentary by Gérard Mordillat and Bertrand Rothé, which makes for an outstanding podcast.
The limits of our imagination of the future: men doing housework!
It is difficult to conceive the future as something open to objective analysis. The future is inevitably intangible. There is, however, one exception: the future of the past. "Past’s futures" such as those manifested in commercials of the 1950s and 1960s reveal many interesting things, for instance the lack of imagination of social change.
The Future of Work: Science and Science Fiction
Futurology has long since established itself as a scientific discipline. Why research should not be aversed to borrow from science fiction films becomes evident in the British miniseries Years and Years (2019) by Russell T. Davies.
Power Plant Employment
Movies and documentaries on reactor disasters were trending last year. 10 years since Fukushima and 35 years since Chernobyl rolled the carpet out. For a true insight into the working world of nuclear power plants, however, I do recommend going further back, to Volker Sattel's "Unter Kontrolle" (2011).
Japan’s sea lions
Anti-stereotypical professions: Ama-San and Haenyo ─ apnoea divers in Japan and Korea
Fischli and Weiss as DIY
A young Youtuber has presumably unwittingly made a remake of Fischli and Weiss' famous art video "The Way Things Go" (1987), raising interesting questions about the relationship between art, professional craft and DIY.