Transformative ideas – ensuring a just share of progress for all

A new collection has been published by ETUI (European Trade Union Institute), focused on how we as a society ensure a just share of progress for all. Authors include Nicola Countouris, Kate Pickett, Richard Wilkinson, and President of the IER Keith Ewing, who has written a chapter entitled ‘A just share of the fruits of progress’: the role of collective bargaining’ (Chapter 9). The publication is Open Access.

Transformative ideas – ensuring a just share of progress for all

Edited by Kalina Arabadjieva, Nicola Countouris, Bianca Luna Fabris and Wouter Zwysen

This edited volume explores the need for a transformative approach to envisioning a just social and economic model. A cross-disciplinary team of academic experts was formed to develop this approach, with the aim of proposing concrete policy ideas that are both transformative and original. While these ideas should not be contingent on a revolutionary reconfiguration of the current relationship between capital and labour, they may lead to a radical rebalancing of power structures within societies.

Crises are becoming an almost permanent feature of our societies, occurring ever more closely together and increasing uncertainty. The recent crises had and are having profound effects on key institutional arrangements underpinning our societies, such as labour markets and welfare states. This has forced societies to reassess the role of the state in regulating markets, as well as the level of control to which private individuals can be subjected, either by the state or by corporate actors. The post-pandemic period offers a unique opportunity to transform the global economic system, making it more resilient to future shocks, while ensuring environmental sustainability, intergenerational fairness and a dignified existence. It is a time to cast a new social-ecological contract for the future, ensuring a just share of progress for all.

You can read the publication here.

The European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) is the independent research and training centre of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) which itself affiliates European trade unions into a single European umbrella organisation.