United Kingdom – available online

Interview by Josh Gabert-Doyon, for the Common Wealth think-tank

Title: « Interview: Isabelle Ferreras on workplace democracy and the firm as a political entity »

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Executive summary (see webpage)

While it has become a cliché to state that the pandemic has changed the way that we work, the question of how exactly workplace decision-making has been transformed by Covid-19 is much less clear. Has remote working brought more autonomy, or just more surveillance? How successful have unions been in resisting unsafe returns to work? Will large-scale state interventions into workplace decisions become the norm?

As part of Common Wealth’s interview series, we spoke to a leading voice on the sociology of work, Isabelle Ferreras. A professor at the Université catholique de Louvain and a senior research associate of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, she’s the author of several books, including most recently Firms as Political Entities: Saving Democracy through Economic Bicameralism, and The Working Manifesto. Common Wealth’s Josh Gabert-Doyon spoke to Ferreras about her historical inspirations for a more democratic firm, and how her understanding of workplace experience has shaped her political theory.

Image credits: Common Wealth, Interview: Isabelle Ferreras on workplace democracy and the firm as a political entity, article written by Josh Gabert-Doyon and published online on October 29, 2020