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Reconceptualising Work and Employment in Complex Productive Configurations

Author

Listed:
  • Martine D’Amours

    (Université Laval, Canada)

  • Leticia Pogliaghi

    (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México)

  • Guy Bellemare

    (Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada)

  • Louise Briand

    (Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada)

  • Frédéric Hanin

    (Université Laval, Canada)

Abstract

Increasingly, work and employment take place within network firms, value chains, and other organisational forms extending control beyond the firm’s legal boundaries. This article proposes a model rooted in sociological concepts (work organisation, control, and risk) to analyse how social relations of work and employment are structured, and how inequalities are manufactured, in these organisational forms. First, we change the level of analysis, moving from firm to productive configuration. Second, we propose the notion of social labour relations , to grasp the relationship between workers and any entity likely to control their conditions of work and employment. Social labour relations articulates five dimensions that could be used to compare groups of workers who are participating in the same configuration. Third, we analyse how control is exercised by which entity/entities and over which social labour relation dimension. Such an understanding is essential to provide avenues for institutional renewal: namely to reconnect control and responsibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Martine D’Amours & Leticia Pogliaghi & Guy Bellemare & Louise Briand & Frédéric Hanin, 2024. "Reconceptualising Work and Employment in Complex Productive Configurations," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(1), pages 63-82, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:38:y:2024:i:1:p:63-82
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170221103131
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jill Rubery & Fang Lee Cooke & Jill Earnshaw & Mick Marchington, 2003. "Inter‐organizational Relations and Employment in a Multi‐employer Environment," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 41(2), pages 265-289, June.
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    3. Elena Baglioni, 2018. "Labour control and the labour question in global production networks: exploitation and disciplining in Senegalese export horticulture," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 111-137.
    4. Damian Grimshaw & Jill Rubery, 2005. "Inter-capital relations and the network organisation: redefining the work and employment nexus," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 29(6), pages 1027-1051, November.
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