Regular readers of the Futures of Work pieces may have noticed that there has been an interruption in the publications. This is due to a change in the editorial team. In fact, two members of the previous editorial team have left the University of Bristol. We have seen further changes at Bristol with the introduction of a ‘School of Business’, including related opportunities and challenges. So there have been a lot of changes. Looking back on the Futures of Work, the strength and diversity of the articles featured is testament to the amount of work and creativity that the previous editorial team invested, and we would like to thank them for the amazing work they have done!
The interruption of articles, and change in the editorial team, has coincided with a time of both continuity and upheaval affecting work; or, perhaps, just the continuity of upheaval. In the UK alone workers face a multitude of issues: adjusting to post-pandemic hybrid work; Industrial change; the threat of recession amid ongoing inflation and the concomitant cost-of-living and housing crises; while austerity is largely absent from discourse, deep budgets cuts are implemented, impacting those in and out of work; the impact of Brexit, now accepted by both the Labour and Conservative parties, continues to be felt; the Nationality and Borders Bill passed in 2022 undermining the already weak provisions of the Modern Slavery Act; sector shortages due to migration restrictions; a resurgence in claims that AI will replace workers. The list goes on.
In the context of these challenges to working conditions, rights, renumeration, and threats of job losses, over the past couple of years strike activity has made a comeback. This includes grassroots unions emerging in traditionally non-unionised sectors across the world. While for several decades union membership and strikes had been on steady decline, the recent cost-of-living crisis has pushed more and more people to organise and actively demand better pay. From nurses and rail workers to postal officers, Amazon workers, and university lecturers, strikes have been taking place across Europe and the US. While not all of them have been equally successful, workers’ willingness to engage again in collective action is promising. Understanding why certain unions or forms of industrial actions have been more successful is key to sustaining the current pace of unionisation and strike activity. This is essential in improving working conditions and wages for the first time after at least three decades of deterioration. What is often missing from this debate is a better understanding of positional power and, thus, disruption power. There is, in other words, a raft of challenges facing workers, but also the prospect of facing some of these challenges through collective action.
Beyond the struggle for better pay and conditions, technology continues to play a central role in considering the future of work. For example, hybrid and remote work, which proliferated through necessity due to COVID-19, but was embraced by some workers for other reasons, such as flexibility and saving on both commuting time and costs, raises issues of managerial control and resistance. Accordingly, digital surveillance for remote workers has become a key managerial tool for companies. Consequently, traditional forms of worker resistance are declining and new forms are emerging. Alongside this, concerns around new forms of AI, for instance the supposed threat of ChatGPT, reanimate debates about whether we are able to harness such technologies to our collective benefit, or whether they escape our control and displace workers. Platform companies have taken some backwards steps by moving workers from employees back to self-employed status. All of which begs us to consider the challenges to the changing nature of the contemporary employment relationship for affected workers.
However, as the outgoing editors argue, the role of the state cannot be overlooked in discussions of how technology impacts workers, among other issues. The state is not merely an arbiter between capital and workers; it plays a central role in shaping working conditions through various interventions, not limited to policy and investment decisions. As such, it is imperative we continue to develop our understanding of how states (re)shape and (re)configure work.
From a more global perspective, there are issues of transitioning to a more just and green future, in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change on communities that have contributed the least and are the most impacted by it. This takes place in the current context of significant amounts of pollution from production being outsourced along with the work. Geopolitical tumult continues apace, with Russia’s war on Ukraine and continuing tensions between China and the West displacing workers and challenging Western views of human rights. All of which could be said to fall under the workplace geopolitics coined by the outgoing Futures of Work editors. Modern slavery, in the form of exploited workers and forced labour, continues to be deeply embedded in both domestic and global supply chains.
Given this amount of change and development, an open exchange of information and opinions, in addition to practical or activist engagements, become all the more important. We are keen to receive submissions on all of these issues, irrespective of disciplinary or geographical positioning, though we are especially keen to include writers from the Global South and individuals who are non-native English speakers (editorial support for writing is available), as well as those who are thinking about different methodologies or conceptualisations of the future of work.
Vanessa Beck is a Reader in Work and Organisation at the University of Bristol. Giorgos Gouzoulis is a Lecturer in HRM and Future of Work at the University of Bristol. Chris Pesterfield is a Lecturer in Management at the University of Bristol. All 3 of them are co-editors of Futures of Work.
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