Zygmunt Bauman: A Beacon Of Hope In The Darkness
I don’t know what to do. A world that was getting darker suddenly turned pitch black. Zygmunt Bauman is dead. The towering intellectual colossus of
Has Income Inequality Finally Got To Top Of The IMF Agenda?
Outgoing US President Barack Obama has named the reduction of economic inequality as the “defining challenge of our time”. This is true not only for
The Age Of Hyper-Uncertainty
The year 2017 will mark the 40th anniversary of the publication of John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Age of Uncertainty. Forty years is a long time, but
Euro Is The Problem, Not The Union
Year of Referendum Disasters In 2016 the European Union both as an organization and hope for a better and more peaceful future suffered at least
No Intergenerational Equity For Millennials
Eight years on from the global economic crisis, social inequality is rising in the majority of EU member states, according to recent studies. Even worse,
European Works Councils – Another Brexit Victim
European Works Councils (EWCs) are a living, functioning embodiment of Social Europe and the core EU concept that workers should have rights and, in exchange
How Bad Can It Get? Prepare For Economic Nationalism
2016 was already quite miserable in so many respects; 2017 promises to get even worse. Looking at the chamber of horrors President-elect Trump is putting
Pay And Social Protection In Platform Capitalism
The market-making matching of supply and demand – not any kind of sharing – defines online platforms. Extension of markets into new spheres may provide
Labour And Its Brexit Dilemma
The British Labour Party currently teeters on the brink, trapped between following many of its northern supporters in supporting an end to the freedom of
Europe’s Slow-Burning Issue – Making Work Sustainable
Making work sustainable is not simply a challenge for politicians and policymakers in the European Union: it is a fundamental issue that underpins the future
Reborn Social Democracy As ‘Progressive Communitarianism’
The new authoritarianism sweeping through liberal democracies increasingly justifies parallels with the 1930s. Now, like then, electorates face multiple insecurities: a lack of decent work,
Don’t Cry Over Dead Trade Agreements
The seven decades since the end of World War II were an era of trade agreements. The world’s major economies were in a perpetual state
It Can Happen Here! Why Donald Trump Affects Us All
In his 2004 novel The Plot against America, Philip Roth invoked the spectre of a fascist regime in the United States of America. Squarely in the
Italy On The Brink
Political instability in Italy is nothing new. But Italian voters’ rejection of constitutional reforms in a referendum has not only led Prime Minister Matteo Renzi
Europe And The Globalization Of Unrest
Donald Trump’s victory has sent the liberal world order into a tailspin. We are not just facing a wake-up call; this wave of authoritarian national
Greater Inequality Not Due To New Technology And Free Trade
A popular narrative today is that low-income groups in the western world have fallen behind owing to jobs lost to new machines and to low-paid
Preventing the Next Eurozone Crisis Starts Now
European leaders have devoted scant attention to the future of the eurozone since July 2012, when Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank’s president, famously committed to do “whatever