Experiencing Work and Politics in the Digital Service-based Capitalist Democracy
Since 2007, thanks to the support of the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program, the Wage Indicator Foundation started to collect data on workers in nine countries (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, United States) and across all industries which cover the key dimensions of the attitude to work that I identified in Critique politique du travail. In association with Professor Richard Freeman, we analyzed this self-selected sample of 100,000 individuals. It let to the strengthening of the perspective I have developed, and has led to the development of several field research projects with Julien Charles and Auriane Lamine in particular, on organizations in democratic transitions, and on the über-positive case of SMart and the transformation of wage work in the gig economy.
Probing the Analogy Firm/State
I am working with the political theorist Hélène Landemore (political science, Yale) on a joint project examining the firm, and the life within, from the perspective of political theory. Our joint paper has appeared in Political Theory.
Patterns of Worker Ownership and Control
With the support of the Wage Indicator Foundation and the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard again, Richard Freeman, Sanjay Pinto (U. Columbia, NYC) and I have included since May 2014 a new module of questions on patterns of worker ownership and control in the Wage Indicator survey in 16 countries.
International Collaborative Research Effort on the Political Dimensions of the Globalized Firm
I coordinate the international collaborative research project on the Political Dimensions of the Globalized Firm brings together an innovative group of scholars in an intensely transdisciplinary effort. It is also known as the Endicott/Dictate.me.not Society, as it meets annually in January in Dedham, Mass. at the M.I.T. Endicott House. The group is currently working on a joint-authored monograph edited by Miranda Richmond Mouillot that will address the democratization of transnational firms. This should be completed by the Fall of 2019.
International Partnership on Institutional Experimentation for Better Work, or Worse?
The CRIMT Partnership Project on Institutional Experimentation for Better Work is coordinated from the University of Montréal and involves more than 100 researchers from across the globe. Supported by grants from the Canadian government (2017-2023), the project is an exciting attempt at providing a descriptive and evaluative account of the current transformations of work, from a transnational and interdisciplinary perspective. I lead the Louvain (IACCHOS-CriDIS) contribution to the partnership.
The CRIMT Institutional Experimentation for Better Work Partnership Project Participating Centres:
Automotive Policy Research Centre
APRC – McMaster University
Centre de droit comparé du travail et de la sécurité sociale
COMPTRASEC – Université de Bordeaux
Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires Démocratie, Institutions, Subjectivité / Institut d’Analyse du Changement dans l’Histoire et les Sociétés Contemporaines
CriDIS / IACCHOS – University of Louvain
Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace
CLCW – Queen’s University
Centre for People, Organisation and Work
CPOW – RMIT
Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing
WOW – Griffith University
El Colegio de la Frontera Norte
Employment Research Unit
ERU – Cardiff University
European Trade Union Institute
Future of Work Research Group
FSSL-FWRG – University of Bristol
HEC Montréal
ILR School
Cornell University
Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Sciences Sociales
IRISSO – Paris Dauphine
Institute of International Management
IIM – Loughborough University London
Labour Law and Development Research Laboratory
LLDRL – McGill University
School of Labor and Human Resources
SLHR – Renmin
School of Management and Labor Relations
SMLR – Rutgers University
Université de Montréal
Université Laval
Isabelle Ferreras 