Driving Inclusive Development: Labour Market Trajectories in BRICS Economies

An ISLE pre-conference symposium exploring equity, productivity, and resilience across rapidly transforming BRICS economies, bringing together leading experts and emerging scholars from across the Global South.

The BRICS economies represent a remarkable diversity of labour market structures and developmental challenges, yet share a common imperative: to foster inclusive growth amid technological change, demographic shifts, and global economic realignment. Understanding how future labour markets will evolve is now more critical than ever.

The Symposium, jointly organised by the Institute for Human Development (IHD), New Delhi and the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at WITS University, South Africa, will feature around ten paper presentations combining invited experts with papers from an open call across BRICS countries.

Suggested Themes for Paper Writers

•  Changing nature of work and the future of employment in BRICS in the context of informality, digitalisation, automation and artificial intelligence
•  Gender disparities and inclusion in labour markets
•  Education, skills development and vocational training for future labour markets
•  Unemployment, especially among young workers
•  Social protection systems and labour market resilience in the wake of new forms of work
•  Inequality in wages and incomes
•  Green transitions and their implications for employment
•  Labour market institutions, governance, and policy innovations

Key Dates

31 July 2026	Extended abstract (~500 words) submission deadline via Conference portal
30 September 2026	Full paper submission deadline (by invitation following abstract acceptance)
18 December 2026	Symposium day, ISLE pre-conference event, BHU, Varanasi, India
19–21 December 2026	67th ISLE Annual Conference, BHU, Varanasi — conference.isleijle.org

Submissions & Notes

Papers aligned with the symposium themes are invited from scholars and researchers across BRICS countries. Submissions may be country-specific or comparative in nature. Papers must be original and not previously published in any form.

Authors of accepted papers are expected to cover their own travel and related expenses. However, based on peer review, the organisers may offer partial financial support to selected participants. Selected and revised papers presented at the Symposium will be considered for publication in an edited volume to be published by a leading international publisher.

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