Bringing Politics Back to Work

An extensive literature in political economy shows that since the 1980s, large-scale processes such as globalisation, automatisation and sectoral change have impacted labour markets, occupational class structure, employment contracts and social policies, what in return has reshaped political conflict in advanced democracies (Kriesi et al. 2008; Oesch 2006; 2008; Emmenegger et al. 2012; Kitschelt/Rehm 2014; Kurer/Palier 2019). This literature has left surprisingly untouched, however, the black box of what happens at work, ie inside enterprises or public organisations. Work organisation, management practices, job quality, and wellbeing at work are in turn subject to a vast literature in sociology, psychology, and economics (Karasek 1979; Kalleberg 2011; Schütte et al. 2014; Holm/Lorenz 2015; Ó Riain/Healy 2023; Palier et al. 2023), which, however, rarely establishes connections with outcomes at the political level. This missing link is surprising, as the workplace is where a majority of people spend much of their awake time, experience intergroup contact and collaboration, authority and conflict about entitlements, and take home a sense of social status and recognition, of (in)efficacy, (in)security and (un)fairness. This informs political outlooks, including on major phenomena of our time: preferences for redistribution and welfare policies, demands for protection, populism, or affective polarisation (Gidron/Hall 2016; Mutz 2018; Antonucci et al. 2024; Kim/Hall 2023; Kiess et al. 2023; Wagner 2023). 'Bringing politics back to work', we aim to shed light on these mechanisms and set an agenda for political science to study what happens at the heart of the economy: at work.

Antonucci, L., Zhirnov, A., Thomeczek, P., Horvath, L., D’Ippoliti, C, Ospina, C., Krouwel, A. and Kersting, N. (2023) “Precarity and populism: Explaining populist outlook and populist voting in Europe through subjective financial and work-related insecurity”, European Sociological Review, Emmenegger, P., Häusermann, S., Palier, B., & Seeleib-Kaiser, M. (Eds.). (2012). The Age of Dualization: The Changing Face of Inequality in Deindustrializing Societies. Oxford University Press. Gidron, N. and Hall, P.A. (2017), The politics of social status: economic and cultural roots of the populist right. The British Journal of Sociology, 68: S57-S84. Holm, J. R., & Lorenz, E. (2015). Has "Discretionary Learning" declined during the Lisbon Agenda? A cross-sectional and longitudinal study of work organization in European nations. Industrial and Corporate Change, 24(6), 1179–1214. Kalleberg, A. L. (2011). Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States, 1970s-2000s. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Karasek, R.A. (1979) Job demands, job decision latitude, and mental strain: Implications for job redesign. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24, 285-307. Kiess, J., Wesser-Saalfrank, A., Bose, S., Schmidt, A., Brähler, E., & Decker, O. (2023). Arbeitswelt und Demokratie in Ostdeutschland. Otto Brenner Stiftung. Kim, S. I., & Hall, P. A. (2024). Fairness and Support for Populist Parties. Comparative Political Studies, 57(7), 1071-1106. Kitschelt, H., & Rehm, P. (2014). Occupations as a Site of Political Preference Formation. Comparative Political Studies, 47(12), 1670-1706. Kriesi, H., Grande, E., Lachat, R., Dolezal, M., Bornschier, S., Frey, T. (2008). West European Politics in the Age of Globalization. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Kurer, T., & Palier, B. (2019). Shrinking and shouting: the political revolt of the declining middle in times of employment polarization. Research & Politics, 6(1). Mutz, D. (2006). Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative versus Participatory Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Oesch, D. (2006). Redrawing the class map: Stratification and institutions in Britain, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Ó Riain, S., & Healy, A. E. (2023). Workplace regimes in Western Europe, 1995–2015: Implications for intensification, intrusion, income and insecurity. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 0(0). Palier, B., et al. (2023). Que sait-on du travail ? Conditions de travail, qualité des emplois, choix managériaux et d'organisation, santé et sens du travail : un état de la situation française. Presses de Sciences Po & LeMonde. Palier, B., & Wagner, P. (2023/03/15). Les lendemains politiques d’une réforme contestée [The political aftermath of a contested reform]. In La Grande Conversation. Schütte, S., et al. (2014). Psychosocial working conditions and psychological well-being among employees in 34 European countries. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 87, 897-907. Wagner, P. (2023). Populism as a Problem of Social Integration. How Tension at the Workplace and with the Welfare State Fuels Working-Class Welfare Chauvinism. Doctoral dissertation defended at Sciences Po Paris.

1: How does the organization of work inform individual political preferences?
2: How does job quality, wellbeing or contact/ conflict at work shape political outlooks?
3: How does this relationship vary by groups and context (countries, sectors, occupations, gender, age)?
4: How do political actors such as parties or unions address and politicize contemporary experiences at work?
5: How do welfare states and social policies influence these dynamics?

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