Industry 4.0: the transformation of work?
‘Industry 4.0’ may be neither so extensive nor advanced as those in whom it arouses hopes and fears.
Politics
Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher driven by the core values of freedom, sustainability, and equality. These principles guide our exploration of society’s most pressing challenges. This archive page curates Social Europe articles focused on political issues, offering a rich resource for innovative thinking and informed debate.
No Realpolitik please: Europe must support the Belarusian people
Proactive engagement to help overcome the stalemate and firm signalling that any autocratic crackdown will trigger strong and effective measures are needed.
The Covid-19 wake-up call to buttress social investment
The temptation to cut welfare expenditures to reduce deficits inflated by the pandemic must be resisted.
Making work fit for workers after Covid-19
The welfare state sought to protect workers from labour-market risks. After Covid-19, reduced working time and greater autonomy must be on the agenda.
Social democracy in one corner of the world
Branko Milanovic argues that ‘stop the world, we want to get off’ is no basis for a revival of progressive politics.
Trade unions need new strategies
With employers on a decades-long offensive against labour, the balance of power which once secured social dialogue has been transformed.
The European minimum wage will come—but how?
The principle of a European minimum wage is established. How it should be set is not.
Estonia top of the (digital) class
After the summer holidays, schools across Europe have been fretting about if and when they will have to switch back to digital distance learning—but not in Estonia.
Including the precariat
The coronavirus crisis has highlighted how the welfare state of the future must include the growing mass of precarious labour, especially among youth.
Hazardous! Occupational safety and health in the care economy during the pandemic
Protecting the health and safety of all workers in the care economy is essential, but for this to become a reality major changes are needed.
Shifting the burden: can Covid-19 do it for women’s unpaid work?
Lockdown conditions have put in question the disproportionate burden of unpaid work placed on women, evidence from Turkey shows.
The EU needs a new story on race and inclusion
If the sensitising impact of ‘Black Lives Matter’ is not to ebb, a new European narrative and concrete actions are needed.
Workers’ rights: negotiating and co-governing digital systems at work
Algorithmic systems are a new front line for unions as well as a challenge to workers’ rights to autonomy.
Anticipating the Covid-19 restructuring tsunami
There’s time to avoid the carnage of employer-led restructuring following the pandemic—but only if workers and unions set the agenda.
Workers in critical occupations face triple disadvantage
At the height of the pandemic workers in critical occupations enjoyed nightly public applause. Now they need longer-term, concrete appreciation.
Building an electoral coalition: social-democratic parties in western Europe
It is sometimes suggested social-democratic parties are torn between ‘communitarian’ workers and ‘cosmopolitan’ professionals—but it’s not so simple.
Where did Trumpism come from?
A new book turns away from the ‘demand side’ focus of much populism analysis to the ‘supply’ of a plutocratic, ever-more right-wing Republican party.