Overview
- Covers a range of topics relating to trade unionism and union power
- Raises tough questions for unions, policy-makers, and commentators regarding work
- Includes contributions covering the Czech Republic, France, Finland, Ireland, Spain, and UK
Part of the book series: St Antony's Series (STANTS)
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Table of contents (15 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
Trade unions in Europe face a range of cross-cutting challenges. This includes the near-universal contraction in union membership; the related decline of traditionally highly unionised blue-collar industries; and the rise of automation, microprocessing, and digitalisation, which can make it cheaper for employers to invest in machines than to pay humans to work. The breakdown of the standard contract of employment and increasing rates of precarious work have further transformed the world of work. Taken together, this makes any collectivist vision of society, and the notion of solidarity upon which trade unionism is built, difficult to sustain.
All this raises tough questions for trade unionists, policy-makers, and researchers alike regarding the future of trade unions, the oldest and largest civil society movement in Europe. The contributions in this volume explore the prospects for union revival across a range of cases, including by focusing on the pursuit of legal remedies and on the opportunities associated with the network society to defend the interests of workers.
This interdisciplinary volume includes contributions that consider the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the EU level by researchers coming from a range of disciplines and backgrounds. The volume should especially appeal to researchers and practitioners working in the fields of political science, sociology, law, and business studies.
Reviews
“This comprehensive and accessible volume provides a rich range of case studies of trade unions in Europe today, ranging across many ‘varieties of capitalism’ and identifying sources of trade union agency even at a time of huge political and structural challenges.”
— Seán Ó Riain, Professor, National University of Ireland Maynooth
“This volume makes a significant contribution to an important topic.”
— Nils C. Bandelow, Professor, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
“A welcome and highly relevant contribution to the St Antony’s series.”
—Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Professor, European University Institute, Italy
Editors and Affiliations
About the editor
Barry Colfer is Research Fellow in Politics at St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge, UK and Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: European Trade Unions in the 21st Century
Book Subtitle: The Future of Solidarity and Workplace Democracy
Editors: Barry Colfer
Series Title: St Antony's Series
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88285-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-88284-6Published: 29 March 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-88287-7Published: 30 March 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-88285-3Published: 28 March 2022
Series ISSN: 2633-5964
Series E-ISSN: 2633-5972
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXII, 319
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 12 illustrations in colour
Topics: European Politics, Political Sociology, Social Policy, Politics of the Welfare State, Social Work and Community Development, Comparative Social Policy