Researching Regulation: new agendas in researching a disorganised workforce

1. Researching Regulation: new agendas in researching a disorganised workforce Miguel Martinez Lucio Presented at theUniversity of Middleesex ESRC Seminar Series January 2012

2. Outline • Challenges • Meanings of regulation and institutionaldimension • Broaderregulatoryactors and context • Meaning and language • Effects and experiences • Participation • Dissemination and reading

3. 1. Challenges of ResearchingRegulation in a GlobalisedContext • Global as notjust a discreetnextlevel – complexity and politics – competing global networks • Trust, acccess and and thequestions of the ‘honourableperson’ – role of discretion and access • Cost and access – physicalconstraints • Jointworking and new forms of academic and practitionerpartnershipbetweendifferentspheres • Thegrowingemphasis and focusonindividuals and narratives in a fragementedmanner

4. 2. The Meaning of Regulation Baldwin et al (1998) three key strands in regulation a) regulation in terms of ‘targeted rules’ ‘accompanied by some mechanism, typically a public agency, for monitoring and promoting compliance’ b)regulation as being co-determinous with the state and its attempt to manage the economy and society c) ‘all mechanisms of social control – including unintentional and non-state processes…’ (ibid: 4). There is a tendency especially in traditions such as industrial relations to still focus on the former two.

5. 3. Institutional Dimension A growing need to clarify the context of regulation at a global level • Levels • Spaces • Actors (see MacKenzie and Martinez Lucio, 2005 for an overview of the debates on regulatory space) • Remapping the firm and workspaces - e.g. oragnisational structures, agencies, contracts, boundaries, hidden economy

6. 4. Putting Employment Regulation in Context The formal-informal official-unofficial re-invented? • IFAs, EWCS and GWCs and the extension of the industrial relations logic onto the international context • Campaigns and Mobilisations through specific cases and established networks BUT we need to focus also on sustainability and development • Understanding capacity, legitimacy and connections – taking further Crouch’s notion of ‘co-ordination’ • Locating regulation in terms of the social context, political context and emergent representative context

7. 5. Broader Regulatory Actors and Politics • New roles in national and transnational state roles and agencies • New logics of regulation (soft regulation) • New forms of networking as suggested by Wills and Waterman • The role of employer networks and consultancies • The changing nature of TNCS – new regional drivers and new sectoral drivers • Eucational networks - social and managerial (e.g. business schools) • The challenges of the ‘new’ international labour organisations and their problems in co-ordinating developments during the crisis • The dynamics of change in NGOs – new managerial agendas and their challenge to purpose • The Internet after the Internet and the role of the labour movement and activists – management responses and contested terrains • The new visible regions in terms of work and protest – China, North Africa – and the role of individual activism in ‘new spaces’ However: The discussion pre/post crisis

8. 6. Language and Terminology • Competing meanings and focus at work (Locke and Thelan) • Official discourses of regulation and how they change and mutate • Terminology and Politics: ‘Decency’ versus ‘Dignity’ for example • The plasticity of the ethical and the competing meanings of ethics and CSR – Anner’s work • Competing internationalist agendas and meanings of solidarity across ethical, religuous and social agendas • The impact of a renewed neo-liberal agenda and anti-statism and the debate on the state (how does it question or reinforce interest in soft regulation?)

9. 7. Participation and Research There is increasingly a need to build on Waterman’s work and broaden the canvass of ‘subjects’ and ‘activists’ • The shift to NGOs is a significant feature in the past two decades but also their internal politics, funding regimes and even managerialisation – link to critical international development studies • The broader spaces of trade unionism and debates about factions and politics(Stewart) • New forms of international state roles and agencies – fellowtravellers and informality

10. 8. Effects and Experiences • Fousing on exploitation and organisational structures • Focusing on mobility, migration and modes of working as an integral dynamic in more complex ways and across different national contexts (Lillie - posted worker debates; Meardi on the cosmopolitan): not just the ‘margins’ • Approaching rights more broadly (human and employemnt), engaging with capabilities (N. Cornelius) and reflecting on participation (Bill Cook) in terms of the worker. Broadenening the minimalist IR rights agenda.

11. 9. Dissemination and Readings As a substantive issue and a research agenda • Who is the audience? • What are the dynamics of academic research? • How has funding emerged as a variable shaping research? Internal neo-liberalisation? • What are the texts produced and what do they do? The transnational reporting industry • Where do those studied fit in? • Where do those studying fit in? • (see Stewart and Martinez Lucio WES 2011)

12. 10. Conclusion • Looking at the links in greater detail within capital and labour across the global along with their agendas • The fundamental crisis in the CSR agenda and the managerialisation of it as a subject of research • Continuing to widen the space of actors and networks: broader notion of voice • Studying the language and terminology of international solidarity and fairness – the ideological space • Sensitivity to questions of audiences, funding and markets of knowledge • Bringing rights and capacity and self-development into a progressive agenda and fusing it within research • Stronger dialogue with organizational theory