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Par Elodie Béthoux et Camille Dupuy

Pourquoi le salarié abandonnerait-il sa liberté et sa citoyenneté une fois franchi le seuil de l'entreprise ? L'entreprise n'a-t-elle pas un rôle à jouer pour le bien de la cité ? La sphère économique doit-elle rester en dehors, voire au-dessus, des règles démocratiques de nos sociétés ? La démocratie est-elle condamnée à l'intermittence ? À l'invitation de la Confédération générale des Scop, treize auteurs (intellectuels, acteurs de l'économie sociale et solidaire, syndicalistes, entrepreneurs) ont réfléchi aux bienfaits d'une démocratisation de l'économie et plus précisément au chaînon maquant : la citoyenneté économique. Ils montrent notamment les mérites de la délibération collective sur la redistribution des bénéfices et le bien-être au travail, le lien entre démocratie interne et implication sociale et écologique, ou encore par quels moyens les entreprises peuvent-elles contribuer à l'intérêt général. Face à l'urgence climatique et sociale, cet ouvrage essentiel pose ainsi les fondations d'un changement radical de modèle de développement.

University of Amsterdam, “Author Meets Critics” during SASE (Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics) Annual Meeting, with Virginia Doellgast (Cornell University ILR School), Dalia Gesualdi-Fecteau (UQAM), Anke Hassel (Hertie School of Governance), Lukas Lehner (University of Oxford), David Peetz (Griffith University) as critics, Isabelle Ferreras as book author, and Gregor Murray (University of Montreal) as moderator

Opening presentation by Isabelle Ferreras and Julie Battilana (HBS/HKS-SICI), panel discussion with Archon Fung (HKS), Marshall Ganz (HKS), Nien-hê Hsieh (HBS), and Anna Stansbury (MIT Sloan) as panelists, and Sharon Block (HLS) as chair

“The Critical Challenges faced by the Quest for Better Work” presented by Isabelle Ferreras, discussant: Nicola Countouris (ETUI), David Doorey (York University), Adrienne Eaton (Rutgers University), Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven) as speakers, and Janice Fine (Rutgers University) as chair

Une proposition d'analyse de la qualité du travail, de l'expérience à l'organisation

What happens to a society—and a planet—when capitalism outgrows democracy? The tensions between democracy and capitalism are longstanding, and they have been laid bare by the social effects of COVID-19. The narrative of “essential workers” has provided thin cover for the fact that society’s lowest paid and least empowered continue to work risky jobs that keep our capitalism humming. Democracy has been subjugated by the demands of capitalism. For many, work has become unfair. In Democratize Work, essays from a dozen social scientists—all women—articulate the perils and frustrations of our collective moment, while also framing the current crisis as an opportunity for renewal and transformation. Amid mounting inequalities tied to race, gender, and class—and with huge implications for the ecological fate of the planet—the authors detail how adjustments in how we organize work can lead to sweeping reconciliation. By treating workers as citizens, treating work as something other than an asset, and treating the planet as something to be cared for, a better way is attainable. Building on cross-disciplinary research, Democratize Work is both a rallying cry and an architecture for a sustainable economy that fits the democratic project of our societies.

Environmental destruction and social inequalities are increasingly urgent challenges. How can corporations, which have played a key role in creating and reproducing these problems, be part of the solution? In this paper, we advance that a shift to more democratic forms of organizing within corporations may be an important part of this transition. We first review scholarship on the disempowerment of workers. We then make the case for democratizing organizations, arguing that workers need to participate in firm decision-making so they can protect their rights and interests. We further suggest that democratic organizing practices may enable corporations to successfully pursue social and environmental objectives alongside financial ones, which is also important for addressing societal challenges. We then propose a research agenda for studying the democratization of organizations and its implications. In doing so, we highlight how organization scholars can build on prior research on democratic forms of organizing and draw from extant social science research outside of mainstream management scholarship. We conclude by calling for research that will document, and help us better understand, what it takes to develop democratic and sustainable organizations and societies.

Come possiamo affrontare la crisi globale e multidimensionale che stiamo attraversando? Il sistema capitalista neoliberista basato sulla sola ricerca del profitto non farà che rafforzare la concentrazione della ricchezza, aggravare le disuguaglianze e devastare il nostro ecosistema. Contro lo status quo, un collettivo di illustri scienziate sociali si è mobilitato per farsi non solo agitatore ma anche innovatore e orchestratore del cambiamento necessario, richiamando tutto il mondo accademico a offrire il proprio contributo. Il progetto del Manifesto del lavoro, che si concentra nella formula “democratizzare (le aziende), demercificare (il lavoro) e disinquinare (il pianeta)”, declina questi imperativi di volta in volta da punti di vista sociali e culturali diversi, per una definizione il più possibile completa e inclusiva del piano d’azione. In un’epoca in cui pandemie, eccessi populisti e sconvolgimenti climatici sono minacce ogni giorno più concrete, il Manifesto del lavoro segna la strada per agire collettivamente e riportare equilibrio, giustizia e rispetto ovunque e per tutte e tutti. Prefazione di Maurizio Landini.

Quelles sont les déséquilibres et les ruptures que révèle la pandémie ? Comment prévenir les crises et s’adapter à l’ère des pandémies et des dérèglements climatiques ? Comment faire reposer la reconstruction des sociétés post-Covid sur des modes de production et de consommations durables ? Comment financer un Green New Deal planétaire ?

CriDIS_IACCHOS_UCLouvain/Cesep/Académie royale de Belgique, « Démarchandiser, démocratiser, dépolluer et expérimenter au travail. La contributions des ‘Territoires zéro chômeur de longue durée’ », organized by Groupe de contact FNRS « Redéfinir la prospérité, Centre socialiste d’éducationpermanente, and the Belgian chapter of #DemocratizingWork. With more than 20 speakers, including Julien Charles, Laurent Grandguillaume, Elise Dermine, Christie Morreale, Paul Hermant, Bénédicte Sohet, etc.

Contribution to the Conference organized by David Gindis (Hertfordshire) and Eva Micheler (SRC/LSE) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) on “An Institutional Theory of the Firm”, with Vicky Barnes (Max Planck), Sandrine Blanc (ESSEC), Rutger Claassen (Utrecht), Simon Deakin (Cambridge), Isabelle Ferreras, Joshua Getzler (Oxford), Jonny Hardman (Edinburgh), Stephan Leixenring (WU Vienna), Samuel Mansell (St Andrews), Ewan McGaughey (KCL), Tim Meijers (Leiden), Christopher Napier (Royal Holloway), Lucy Newton (Reading), Eric Orts (Wharton), Sarah Paterson (LSE), Alexander Pepper (LSE), Tully Rector (Utrecht), Alexander Styhre (Gothenburg), Carien van Mourik (OU)

Institute for Ethics in AI, Oxford University, ‘Democratize Work’ (University of Chicago Press, 2022) Book Colloquium, with Isabelle Ferreras and Hélène Landemore (Yale University) as speakers, Joshua Cohen (Apple University), Abigail Adams-Prassl (University of Oxford), Sharon Block (Harvard Law School), and Jeremias Adams-Prassl (University of Oxford) as commentators, chaired by John Tasioulas (Institute for Ethics and AI, University of Oxford)

This PhD presents a compendium of six publications dealing with the process of Europeanisation of democracy at work, and within that overarching framework, the process of Europeanisation of worker representation on corporate boards of directors.The Europeanisation of codetermination rights at enterprise level is analysed from an institutional and socio-political perspective, interested in actors and institutions, and addressing codetermination as an area of EU social policy and EU trade union strategy. The publications are presented in three parts. One contextualises the research and the historical and legislative developments that have led codetermination to become a rather limited area of EU social policy under the shadow of the German model and actoral strategies, although significantly eroded by the effects of EU integration and corporate mobility. The second part addresses the process of top-down Europeanisation of worker representation on boards. It examines the implementation of the European Company (SE) Directive 2001/86 and how clauses of participation have been negotiated in SE agreements, generally weakening previous national models, as well as critically analyses the legal and political implications of the CJEU Case Erzberger, which constituted a sort of impasse for the development of Europeanisation of worker representation on boards in multinationals governed by national law. A final third part examines the process of bottom-up Europeanisation of these rights, according to national law and practice and independently of any EU regulation. The findings question the idea of a Europeanisation by stealth and tending to a Euro-democratic process. Without a proactive legal and political action from institutions and social actors at EU level, particularly trade unions, codetermination rights may lose from their democratic legitimacy component., Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales, info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Conference organized by John Roemer with Marc Fleurbaey, Thomas Piketty, Suresh Naidu

Atelier 4 : La gouvernance d’entreprise soutenable, un enjeu essentiellement démocratique ? Il est aujourd’hui courant de parler d’une « responsabilité sociétale des organisations », sans distinguer selon la nature ou la taille des organisations concernées. A ce compte, la gouvernance d’entreprise soutenable devrait devenir l’horizon de toutes les organisations, qu’il s’agisse de petites entreprises, d’associations de quartier, d’établissements publics ou de grandes entreprises transnationales. Pourtant, une autre opinion est possible, qui consiste à concevoir la gouvernance d’entreprise soutenable comme un objectif propre aux grandes organisations, publiques ou privées, qui par leur capacité sociale d’action ont individuellement le pouvoir de faire changer les pratiques à l’échelle collective. Cet atelier sera destiné à mettre au jour cette problématique et ses ramifications sur le droit, tel qu’il s’écrit et tel qu’il s’enseigne.

3-day conference on Ferreras’ proposal hosted by the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm with funding from the Rijksbankens Jubileumsfond (Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences) and the Havens-Wright Center for Social Justice at University of Wisconsin-Madison. The conference focused in details on Ferreras’ proposal to democratize corporations, with key figures in the social sciences discussing Ferreras’ work, including economist Marc Fleurbaey (Princeton/Paris School of Economics), sociologist Bo Rothstein (Oxford/University of Gothenburg), economist and mathematician David Ellerman (University of California, Riverside), political philosopher Gustaf Arrhenius (Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm), political scientist Joel Rogers (University of Wisconsin -Madison), and legal scholar Benjamin Sachs (Harvard).

Portuguese and Brazilian book launch: "Manifesto do Trabalho: Democratizar, Desmercantilizar e Remediar," coordinated by Flávia Máximo (Federal University of Ouro Preto - UFOP), Ana Virginia Moreira Gomes and Eduardo Rocha Dias (University of Fortaleza - UNIFOR). The Brazilian version of the book, "Manifesto do Trabalho," comprises the twelve chapters, translated into Portuguese, from the original French version "Le Manifeste Travail." The latter has been written by Isabelle Ferreras (FNRS-Louvain, Belgium & Harvard LWP), Julie Battilana (HKS/HBS, Harvard, USA), Dominique Méda (Paris-Dauphine PSL, France), Adelle Blackett (McGill, Canada), Julia Cagé (Sciences Po-Paris, France), Neera Chandhoke (University of Delhi, India), Lisa Herzog (University of Groningen, the Netherlands), Sara Lafuente Hernandez (ETUI-ULB, Belgium), Hélène Landemore (Yale, USA), Flavia Maximo (Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Brazil), Imge Kaya Sabanci (IE Business School, Spain) and Pavlina Tcherneva (Bard College-Levy Institute, USA). Moreover, the Brazilian version also features six new chapters, written by Brazilian researchers, who form a group characterized by diversity of race, gender identity, and sexuality: Maíra Neiva Gomes (State University of Minas Gerais), Fernanda Barreto Lira (Federal University of Pernambuco), Valdete Souto Severo (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), Regina Stela Corrêa Vieira (University of West Santa Catarina), Jaqueline Gomes de Jesus (Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro), Louisa Acciari (University College London) and Renata Queiroz Dutra (National University of Brasilia). From a decolonial perspective, the Brazilian book situates the #democratizingwork principles into the Global South's labor relations.

Seminar discussing the Chaire SFPI Report by Max Krahé, June 2021, with presentations of Isabelle Ferreras, Maximilian Krahé, Jacques Pélerin (Reverse Metallurgy), Bernard Gustin (CEO FlightLevel 500, Chairman Elia Group), Jean-Pierre Hansen, Elia Trippel (EU Commission), Thomas Dermine (State Secretary for Scientific Policy, Recovery Program and Strategic Investments at Belgian Federal Government), followed by a debate with all the participants

The surge of non-standard forms of employment and the concerns they raise about job quality challenge researchers to find better methods to evaluate job quality across radically different ways to organize work and em-ployment. Current analysis methods can come short when it comes to tacklingthis diversity. To fill that gap, we introduce an enterprise architecture, model-based, approach to improve the analysis of job quality: the Work-Enterprise Canvas. We show how it can be used in the case of Service Voucher Work, a form of employment specific to the domestic help industry in Belgium. Usingthis model will enable researchers to get more detailed and comparable results across industries and organizations, opening opportunities for richer assessment of the job quality. However, for best results, this approach still needs to be combined with the two traditional approaches to job quality: the evaluation at the subjective and at the objective levels.

Démocratiser l’entreprise, voici le leitmotiv qui traverse les travaux d’Isabelle Ferreras. Professeure de sociologie à l’Université catholique de Louvain et présidente de l’Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, elle réfléchit depuis le début des années 2000 aux principes de gouvernement des entreprises en interrogeant la place qu’y occupent les travailleurs et travailleuses. À partir d’une première enquête sur l’expérience de travail des caissières, ses travaux explorent l’intuition qu’ont les travailleurs et travailleuses d’être davantage que des facteurs de production au service de leur entreprise et de ses actionnaires, et leur attente de peser sur les décisions qui les concernent. Après avoir élaboré une sociologie politique du travail fondée sur l’analyse du travail comme expérience fondamentalement politique, Isabelle Ferreras a développé une analyse critique de l’entreprise en y important les concepts de la théorie politique. Si le projet démocratique est à poursuivre, défend-elle, c’est en donnant du pouvoir aux travailleurs et travailleuses car c’est de la sorte que nos sociétés se donneront les moyens d’en faire des véritables citoyens et citoyennes, qui le soient jusque dans l’entreprise.