Rethinking work beyond productivism from labour law and its uses

Despite the diagnosis that rethinking work beyond productivism is key for ecological transition, research on the future of work is confined to a general and abstract level, and therefore remains inoperative.

This ERC aims to elucidate the role that national systems of labour law, which define and organise work, already play, and could play further, in the emancipation of work from productivism.

To think about the future of work, we propose to start from present institutions, and uses, of labour law, but which, at the margins of the system, do already deviate from the dominant paradigm of productivism, to then develop, by extrapolation, concrete and plausible trajectories and policy proposals for the future of work.

First, we will conduct a large-scale European comparative survey to map deviant institutions of labour law that support the development of non-productivist time-spaces, i.e. places and moments dedicated to activities that are not productive in the economic sense of the term because they have little or no economic value.

Second, we will investigate, through in-depth case studies, whether individuals develop deviant uses of labour law to secure to themselves non-productivist time-spaces, beyond the law.

Finally, building on these results, we will elaborate ideal-type trajectories for emancipating work from productivism and develop legal arguments supporting the extension of non-productivist time-spaces supported by labour law based on international, European and comparative law, as well as empirical data collected throughout the project.

This ERC has the potential to remedy the current scientific bottlenecks in articulating concrete and grounded policy proposals and trajectories for the future of work.

From a societal perspective, it will inform socio-economic players and political decision-makers so that, beyond their growing awareness of the limits of productivism on a finite planet, concrete labour law reforms can be debated and decided upon.