Ana Alacov­ska

My research lies at the intersection of cultural sociology, the sociology of work, and media/cultural studies. I have sought to illuminate the often-overlooked dimensions of care, hope, and relationality that underpin livelihoods in precarious economies by conducting fieldwork across diverse creative industries contexts, including post-socialist Europe, Africa, and the global digital gig economy. In this work, I have developed theoretical frameworks that challenge narrow definitions of employment, ‘good jobs’ and economic exchange, showing instead how livelihoods are sustained through affective, informal, and relational infrastructures and work success is adjudicated through personally meaningful conceptions of ‘the good life’. My publications reflect my ongoing commitment to building conceptual tools that can capture these complex lived dynamics while also engaging with broader debates across sociology, organisation studies, and cultural theory.  

Alongside this, I have examined how genres of popular culture - such as crime fiction and travel writing - shape professional practices and reproduce gender inequalities in creative work; how the genre of climate fiction (cli-fi) conditions speculative experimentations with alternative futures in environmental organizing; and how science fiction structures the entrepreneurial imagination of robotics engineers and designers. I also investigate how the arts and artistic practices actively kindle the radical imagination of more just and equitable futures, positioning culture not merely as reflection but as a vital resource for envisioning and shaping social and organizational change.