André Alvinzi

About André Alvinzi

André is currently a researcher in sociology at Örebro University, with a particular interest in interpretive sociology and the Verstehen tradition. His research is grounded in a humanistic commitment to understanding social phenomena through people’s own experiences, interpretations and practices of meaning-making. He combines reflexivity with perspectives from critical theory, hermeneutics and social phenomenology to analyse the relationship between social structures and human agency.

André’s doctoral thesis, which examines meaningfulness and meaninglessness in wage labour, is available here.

A central focus of André’s research is the relationship between power, structure and people’s experiences of meaningfulness and meaninglessness, particularly within wage labour and its organisational forms. He explores how working conditions both enable and constrain people’s scope for action, and how this, in turn, shapes their experiences of meaning in work and life more broadly.

His current research is a FORTE-funded project examining how technological changes associated with generative AI affect labour processes, occupational roles and experiences of meaningfulness in creative and knowledge-intensive occupations. He analyses how AI reshapes the relationship between human agency, knowledge and control, and the implications this has for the quality and meaning of working life.

He teaches sociological theory and method, work and organisation, with a particular emphasis on developing students’ analytical abilities and their understanding of how theory can be used reflexively to interpret contemporary social phenomena. His teaching stresses the importance of connecting theoretical perspectives to empirical examples and students’ own experiences.

His research contributes to a sociological understanding of factors that promote or constrain experiences of meaningfulness at work, offering insights relevant to educational and career guidance, organisational development and labour market policy. It also addresses broader questions about how work can be organised in ways that are productive as well as socially and existentially sustainable.

In the longer term, his research aims to deepen the understanding of meaning in people’s lives from the perspective of existential sociology in a late-modern society, particularly in relation to changes in working life, technological development and the power relations that shape people’s opportunities to lead meaningful lives.