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The Elgar Companion to Decent Work and the Sustainable Development Goals
The Elgar Companion to Decent Work and the Sustainable Development Goals is an essential reference for understanding the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and its promotion of fair conditions, rights at work and employment opportunities for all.
This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.
This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.
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Critical Acclaim
Contents
More Information
The Elgar Companion to Decent Work and the Sustainable Development Goals is an essential reference for understanding the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and its promotion of fair conditions, rights at work and employment opportunities for all.
Bringing together contributions from over 60 leading labour scholars, this Companion critically investigates the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda and how it links to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Chapters look ahead to the future of labour trends and address a range of perspectives, including viewpoints from political science, economics, sociology and law. A comprehensive analysis of the decent work deficit is provided, along with an examination of the global labour market. Ultimately, the Companion discusses pressing issues such as ecological crises and the growing effect of the gig economy and automation on the changing nature of work, addressing the gap between aspirations and the reality of the global labour market.
This prescient Companion is vital for students and scholars of labour studies, economics, international relations and law. Offering an important overview of the history of the Decent Work Agenda, it is also beneficial to practitioners and policy advocates.
Bringing together contributions from over 60 leading labour scholars, this Companion critically investigates the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda and how it links to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Chapters look ahead to the future of labour trends and address a range of perspectives, including viewpoints from political science, economics, sociology and law. A comprehensive analysis of the decent work deficit is provided, along with an examination of the global labour market. Ultimately, the Companion discusses pressing issues such as ecological crises and the growing effect of the gig economy and automation on the changing nature of work, addressing the gap between aspirations and the reality of the global labour market.
This prescient Companion is vital for students and scholars of labour studies, economics, international relations and law. Offering an important overview of the history of the Decent Work Agenda, it is also beneficial to practitioners and policy advocates.
Critical Acclaim
‘The Decent Work Agenda, proposed by the ILO in 1999 and formally adopted in 2008, comprises four pillars: employment creation, social protection, rights at work and social dialogue. In 2015 these were incorporated in the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development. Yet work has become more and more precarious and exploitative. This book critically assesses the ILO''s strategic response to globalisation, addressing the setbacks and criticisms surrounding the decent work agenda. It captures the complexity of this agenda, evaluating different criticisms and providing a platform for further scrutiny. As a comprehensive guide, this Companion cuts across disciplines, including labour studies, political economy, political science, sociology and social policy. It serves as an important resource for academics, students and policy practitioners navigating the multifaceted landscape of labour, making it an essential contribution to the debates on sustainable development.’
– Richard Hyman, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
‘The Decent Work Agenda may be utopian but in taking it seriously this compendium of working conditions from all over the world demonstrates just how ever more deeply entrenched is indecent work and how the only way forward lies in the collaborative might of labor.’
– Michael Burawoy, The University of California, Berkeley, US
‘Christoph Scherrer, Madelaine Moore and Marcel van der Linden have compiled a deep, global, and critical look at the ILO’s concept of “decent work” that will be a major resource for academics, policymakers, and trade union activists alike. Some 50 essays examine the limits of ILO enforcement and multiple barriers to “decent work” across the globe, including free trade, climate change, and corporate aggression, but also the means to achieve it “from below” through the rights to organize, bargain, and strike.’
– Kim Moody, University of Westminster, UK
‘The mid-term review of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals is sobering. Most of the goals that the United Nations has set itself for 2030 can probably no longer be achieved. Core goals such as combating climate change, eradicating poverty and hunger, and reducing social inequalities have even been set back in many regions of the world. It is therefore all the more important that a scientifically grounded handbook addresses the close connection between decent work and the SDGs. The editors have succeeded in producing a great, multifaceted volume that opens up a view of the major challenges facing the world of work in the 21st century.’
– Klaus Dörre, University of Jena, Germany
– Richard Hyman, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
‘The Decent Work Agenda may be utopian but in taking it seriously this compendium of working conditions from all over the world demonstrates just how ever more deeply entrenched is indecent work and how the only way forward lies in the collaborative might of labor.’
– Michael Burawoy, The University of California, Berkeley, US
‘Christoph Scherrer, Madelaine Moore and Marcel van der Linden have compiled a deep, global, and critical look at the ILO’s concept of “decent work” that will be a major resource for academics, policymakers, and trade union activists alike. Some 50 essays examine the limits of ILO enforcement and multiple barriers to “decent work” across the globe, including free trade, climate change, and corporate aggression, but also the means to achieve it “from below” through the rights to organize, bargain, and strike.’
– Kim Moody, University of Westminster, UK
‘The mid-term review of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals is sobering. Most of the goals that the United Nations has set itself for 2030 can probably no longer be achieved. Core goals such as combating climate change, eradicating poverty and hunger, and reducing social inequalities have even been set back in many regions of the world. It is therefore all the more important that a scientifically grounded handbook addresses the close connection between decent work and the SDGs. The editors have succeeded in producing a great, multifaceted volume that opens up a view of the major challenges facing the world of work in the 21st century.’
– Klaus Dörre, University of Jena, Germany
Contents
Contents
1 Introduction to the challenges of decent work and the Sustainable Development Goals 1
Madelaine Moore, Christoph Scherrer and Marcel van der Linden
HISTORICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF DECENT WORK AND THE SDGS
2 Decent work’s place among the SDGs: contribution by the International Labour Organization 26
Eva Senghaas-Knobloch
3 The genesis of the Decent Work Agenda 39
Tânia Ferraro
4 Unravelling capitalist structuring conditions: limits of the Decent Work Agenda 52
Andreas Bieler
5 Competing conceptualizations of decent work: measurement and policy coherence challenges 63
Erica Di Ruggiero
6 Measuring decent work 76
Léa Renard and Bénédicte Zimmermann
DEVELOPMENT OF WORKING CONDITIONS IN/OUTSIDE STANDARD WORK
7 The evolution of standard work 90
Paul Schoukens, Eleni De Becker and Charlotte Bruynseraede
8 The workplace 104
Narayan Prasad and Nausheen Nizami
9 Wages: functions, types, inequalities 116
Maarten van Klaveren
10 Work without protection: informal work 128
Jan Breman and Marcel van der Linden
11 Unemployment – underemployment 139
Gerhard Bosch
12 Unfree labour within and beyond the Decent Work Agenda 152
Anne Lisa Carstensen
13 Reproductive work against productivism from the Decent Work Agenda to the SDGs 163
Alessandra Mezzadri
14 Valuing domestic labour: the changing meanings of ‘housework’ under capitalism 175
Indu Agnihotri
DEVELOPMENT OF WORKING CONDITIONS OF SPECIFIC SOCIAL GROUPS
15 Women workers 188
Madhumita Dutta and Sirisha C. Naidu
16 Migrant workers 200
Helen Schwenken
17 Child workers 213
Ben White
18 Africa: young people between insecurity and the aspiration for decent jobs 225
Babacar Fall
19 People with disabilities 236
Felix Welti
20 Challenges of decent work for smallholders and agricultural workers: reflections on the Global South 247
Praveen Jha
DRIVERS OF DECENT WORK DEFICITS
21 Three windows on decent work: theories of labour relations 260
Chris Tilly
22 Uneven and combined development and decent work 274
Ronaldo Munck
23 International labour migration and decent work 284
Immanuel Ness
24 Labour, social upgrading and indecent work in global value chains 298
Kristoffer Marslev and Cornelia Staritz
PUBLIC AND CORPORATE ENFORCEMENT MECHANISMS OF DECENT WORK
25 Navigating globalization: examining the ILO’s efforts to promote decent work 312
Faradj Koliev
26 The ILO and the promotion of social dialogue at the global and national level 324
Yvonne Rueckert
27 The elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work: ILO Convention No. 190 335
Reingard Zimmer
28 Securing compliance with standards of occupational health and safety: labour inspection and its challenges 346
David Walters
29 Trade agreements and decent work 358
Christoph Scherrer
30 Corporate due diligence in global value chains 370
Christian Scheper
31 The efficacy of market-driven voluntary governance mechanisms for decent work 382
Tim Connor, Kate Macdonald and Shelley Marshall
32 Regional integration: a promising tool to advance the international decent work agenda? 396
Roland Erne, Mark Anner, Michele Ford, Tamara Kay and Vincenzo Maccarrone
BOTTOM-UP ENFORCEMENT MECHANISMS AND DECENT WORK
33 Trade unions and decent work 413
Greg Patmore
34 Trade unions as organised forms of labour movements: why this matters in liberal democracies 425
Peter Fairbrother and Karen Douglas
35 Strikes and decent work 438
Jörg Nowak
36 Collective representation of precarious workers: what has the Decent Work Agenda got to do with it? 448
Edlira Xhafa and Melisa R. Serrano
37 Worker organizing in the Global South: an experimental trend 461
Lynford Dor and Edward Webster
38 Transnational regulation of decent work through Global Framework Agreements: a collective instrument of worker voice 473
Michael Fichter
39 The power of boycotts 487
Allyson P. Brantley
NEW CHALLENGES TO THE DECENT WORK AGENDA
40 The role of labour and nature within just transition strategies 500
Nora Räthzel and Dimitris Stevis
41 Work health and safety, adaptation, and climate change 514
Elizabeth Humphrys
42 Degrowth and decent work 526
Birte Strunk
43 Future of work and global trends: reframing the debate in an age of state capitalism and systemic competition 538
Frederick Harry Pitts and Huw Thomas
44 The technopolitics of decent digital work 551
Simon Schaupp
45 Digital labour platforms and their contribution to development outcomes 562
Uma Rani, Rishabh Kumar Dhir and Nora Gobel
ALTERNATIVES TO WORKPLACE-RELATED RIGHTS
46 Decent work and welfare states: two sides of the same coin? 577
Martin Seeleib-Kaiser, Leonid Shvyrev and Jakub Sowula
47 Social protection floors as a knowledge object: examining their place within the Decent Work and Sustainable Development Agenda 604
John Berten and Alexandra Kaasch
48 Universal versus employment-based social protection? 615
Gabriele Koehler
49 Size matters: universal basic income as a strategy for decent work 627
Ruth Castel-Branco and Nicolas Pons-Vignon
THE FUTURE OF THE DECENT WORK AGENDA
50 No future for decent work without the right to strike 639
Frank Hoffer
1 Introduction to the challenges of decent work and the Sustainable Development Goals 1
Madelaine Moore, Christoph Scherrer and Marcel van der Linden
HISTORICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF DECENT WORK AND THE SDGS
2 Decent work’s place among the SDGs: contribution by the International Labour Organization 26
Eva Senghaas-Knobloch
3 The genesis of the Decent Work Agenda 39
Tânia Ferraro
4 Unravelling capitalist structuring conditions: limits of the Decent Work Agenda 52
Andreas Bieler
5 Competing conceptualizations of decent work: measurement and policy coherence challenges 63
Erica Di Ruggiero
6 Measuring decent work 76
Léa Renard and Bénédicte Zimmermann
DEVELOPMENT OF WORKING CONDITIONS IN/OUTSIDE STANDARD WORK
7 The evolution of standard work 90
Paul Schoukens, Eleni De Becker and Charlotte Bruynseraede
8 The workplace 104
Narayan Prasad and Nausheen Nizami
9 Wages: functions, types, inequalities 116
Maarten van Klaveren
10 Work without protection: informal work 128
Jan Breman and Marcel van der Linden
11 Unemployment – underemployment 139
Gerhard Bosch
12 Unfree labour within and beyond the Decent Work Agenda 152
Anne Lisa Carstensen
13 Reproductive work against productivism from the Decent Work Agenda to the SDGs 163
Alessandra Mezzadri
14 Valuing domestic labour: the changing meanings of ‘housework’ under capitalism 175
Indu Agnihotri
DEVELOPMENT OF WORKING CONDITIONS OF SPECIFIC SOCIAL GROUPS
15 Women workers 188
Madhumita Dutta and Sirisha C. Naidu
16 Migrant workers 200
Helen Schwenken
17 Child workers 213
Ben White
18 Africa: young people between insecurity and the aspiration for decent jobs 225
Babacar Fall
19 People with disabilities 236
Felix Welti
20 Challenges of decent work for smallholders and agricultural workers: reflections on the Global South 247
Praveen Jha
DRIVERS OF DECENT WORK DEFICITS
21 Three windows on decent work: theories of labour relations 260
Chris Tilly
22 Uneven and combined development and decent work 274
Ronaldo Munck
23 International labour migration and decent work 284
Immanuel Ness
24 Labour, social upgrading and indecent work in global value chains 298
Kristoffer Marslev and Cornelia Staritz
PUBLIC AND CORPORATE ENFORCEMENT MECHANISMS OF DECENT WORK
25 Navigating globalization: examining the ILO’s efforts to promote decent work 312
Faradj Koliev
26 The ILO and the promotion of social dialogue at the global and national level 324
Yvonne Rueckert
27 The elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work: ILO Convention No. 190 335
Reingard Zimmer
28 Securing compliance with standards of occupational health and safety: labour inspection and its challenges 346
David Walters
29 Trade agreements and decent work 358
Christoph Scherrer
30 Corporate due diligence in global value chains 370
Christian Scheper
31 The efficacy of market-driven voluntary governance mechanisms for decent work 382
Tim Connor, Kate Macdonald and Shelley Marshall
32 Regional integration: a promising tool to advance the international decent work agenda? 396
Roland Erne, Mark Anner, Michele Ford, Tamara Kay and Vincenzo Maccarrone
BOTTOM-UP ENFORCEMENT MECHANISMS AND DECENT WORK
33 Trade unions and decent work 413
Greg Patmore
34 Trade unions as organised forms of labour movements: why this matters in liberal democracies 425
Peter Fairbrother and Karen Douglas
35 Strikes and decent work 438
Jörg Nowak
36 Collective representation of precarious workers: what has the Decent Work Agenda got to do with it? 448
Edlira Xhafa and Melisa R. Serrano
37 Worker organizing in the Global South: an experimental trend 461
Lynford Dor and Edward Webster
38 Transnational regulation of decent work through Global Framework Agreements: a collective instrument of worker voice 473
Michael Fichter
39 The power of boycotts 487
Allyson P. Brantley
NEW CHALLENGES TO THE DECENT WORK AGENDA
40 The role of labour and nature within just transition strategies 500
Nora Räthzel and Dimitris Stevis
41 Work health and safety, adaptation, and climate change 514
Elizabeth Humphrys
42 Degrowth and decent work 526
Birte Strunk
43 Future of work and global trends: reframing the debate in an age of state capitalism and systemic competition 538
Frederick Harry Pitts and Huw Thomas
44 The technopolitics of decent digital work 551
Simon Schaupp
45 Digital labour platforms and their contribution to development outcomes 562
Uma Rani, Rishabh Kumar Dhir and Nora Gobel
ALTERNATIVES TO WORKPLACE-RELATED RIGHTS
46 Decent work and welfare states: two sides of the same coin? 577
Martin Seeleib-Kaiser, Leonid Shvyrev and Jakub Sowula
47 Social protection floors as a knowledge object: examining their place within the Decent Work and Sustainable Development Agenda 604
John Berten and Alexandra Kaasch
48 Universal versus employment-based social protection? 615
Gabriele Koehler
49 Size matters: universal basic income as a strategy for decent work 627
Ruth Castel-Branco and Nicolas Pons-Vignon
THE FUTURE OF THE DECENT WORK AGENDA
50 No future for decent work without the right to strike 639
Frank Hoffer
