Coordinamento:
Lisa Dorigatti
Università di Milano
lisa.dorigatti@unimi.it
Guglielmo Meardi
Scuola Normale Superiore
guglielmo.meardi@sns.it
Francesco Seghezzi
ADAPT
francesco.seghezzi@adapt.it
Call for papers
Since its beginnings, industrial relations, as the broad set of relations between enterprises and workers, have been rooted in geographic territories: in the seminal works by John Commons, the boundaries of industrial relations should correspond to product markets. The transformation of systems of production and the uneven forms of economic integration, with different degrees of mobility for capital, goods and labour, have made the definition of boundaries more complicated. Both geographic and organisational boundaries are put in question by the organisation of value chains and product networks, by outsourcing, by the fragmentation of the workplace, by the posting of workers and different forms of direct and indirect competition that sometimes attract the label of ‘social dumping’. On one side, process of localisation are visible in collective bargaining and other forms of regulation at the level of districts or regions. On the other side, attempts at transnational regulations and forms of representation and negotiation have multiplied. There are also attempts to articulate both local and distant levels, as in regulatory efforts on production chains. Despite such efforts, the management of regional differences in wage setting remains full of challenges and problems, as increasingly apparent in the Italian and European contexts.
The session calls for papers that, with different approaches and methods, look at the definition of boundaries in industrial relations. Contributions are welcome on issues that include:
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The impact of geographical and organizational boundaries on labour regulation and its effectiveness;
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The way in which different territories, organisations, and workers are differently covered by specific regulations, statuses and negotiations;
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The conditions under which different ways of coordination, articulation, derogation between bargaining levels may happen;
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The processes and conditions according to which boundaries shape the construction of solidarities.
Contributions with comparative and multi-level dimensions are particularly welcome.