Better Work The Impact of Automation, Flexibilization and Intensification of Work

This Open Access book provides a thorough analysis of the quality of work in the Netherlands, and suggests policy proposals to promote and facilitate good work for more people. New technology, flexibilization and the intensification of work will have significant consequences for all those who will still have jobs in the future, and – much less studied so far – for the quality of their work. Good work is essential for general well-being: for the individual’s quality of life, for the economy and for society. Good work for everyone should therefore be seen as an important aspiration for companies, institutions, social partners and governments. An essential read for an international audience of academics in the field of the sociology of work, labor economics and social policy, as well as for policymakers and researchers of trade unions, and representatives of other social movements.

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1  Three major developments: automation, flexibilization and intensification

1.2 Better work as a societal mission

1.4 Better work and well-being

1.5 In this book

A day at work: the truck driver

Chapter 2. The importance of better work

2.1 The meaning of paid work

2.2 Good work: insights from the social sciences

2.3 Conditions for good work

2.4 Consequences of good work for the individual, the economy and society

2.5 Conclusion: good work means control

A day at work: the primary-school teacher

Part 1.  Good work: development and current status

Chapter 3. Control over income

3.2 Social security and insecurity

3.3 Repair or revise

3.4 Security of employment and professional development

3.5 Wage development

3.6 Conclusion: control over income requires more security and less inequality

A day at work: the order picker

Chapter 4. Control over work

4.1 Busier than ever? The intensification of work

4.2 Autonomy as Achilles’ heel

4.3 Camaraderie at work

4.4 Differences in control over work: education and occupation

4.5 Who is responsible for control over work?

4.6 Conclusion: control over work requires more autonomy and camaraderie

A day at work: the IT worker

5.1 Part-time work, or looking after number one

5.2 Paid leave

5.3 Control over working hours

5.4 Blurring boundaries

5.5 Conclusion: control in life requires more than just part-time work

Part 1 – Conclusion: work could be better

A day at work: the retail floor manager

Chapter 6. Everyone into work

6.2 Flexible labour market

6.3 Intensification of work

6.4 Policies to help people into work

6.5 Conclusion: new vulnerabilities, new policy challenges

Part 3. The new societal mission

7.1 Globalization with policy space

7.2 Technology does not just happen

7.3 Investing in good work

7.4 A task for government

7.5 Conclusion: room for choice?

A day at work: the homecare worker

Chapter 8. Better work: conclusions and recommendations

8.2 Security of income

8.3 More control over work

8.4 Work-life balance

8.5 Better work as an objective of public policy

Bibliography

Monique Kremer is a professor of active citizenship, department of sociology, University of Amsterdam, chair of the migration advisory board, and was previously employed at the WRR. She has published numerous books on a variety of topics, such as How welfare states care (2007, Amsterdam University Press), People, Policy and the New Pofessional (2006) and Vreemden in de verzorgingsstaat (2016, Strangers in the Welfare Sttate).

Robert Went (1955) works at the WRR since 2007. He has attained a doctorate in economics with a dissertation on globalization (Routledge 2002). Before he joined the WRR, he has worked among others at the Dutch court of audit (Algemene Rekenkamer) as a project manager. He has written a lot about economic issues for the general public, and is very active on twitter (@went1955). He is also a member of the board of Rethinking Economics in The Netherlands. 

Godfried Engbersen, is a professor of sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam and a council member of the WRR. Key themes in his research are social inequality and international migration. He published numerous books, among which (with others) A Continent Moving West: EU Enlargement and Labour Migration from Central and Eastern Europe (Amsterdam University Press 2010); Beyond Networks. Feedback in International Migration (Palgrave 2016), and Cultures of Unemployment (Routledge 2019).