Research

In the profile initiative ‘Labour and Social Change’, we examine the current structural change of work and its social preconditions and consequences from an interdisciplinary perspective. This is based on a concept of work that includes both traditional paid employment and the diverse arrangements of different forms of labour: paid and unpaid, formal and informal, domestic and company-based, mobile and stationary, self-employed and dependent, as well as productive and reproductive labour.

The impetus and causes for the upheavals in work that are being analysed in the profile initiative are diverse. They include the digitalisation of labour, economy and society, economic and political globalisation processes as well as new international bloc formations and the socio-ecological transformation and its challenges. Current drivers of change can also currently be found in various moments of crisis, such as the social ‘care crisis’, which became apparent during the Covid19 pandemic, as well as the return of war to Europe and the (not only) associated intensified migration movements.

How far-reaching the processes of change in labour are and how they are to be assessed - whether they are disruptive changes, fundamental crises in development models or long-term transformations and sustainable economic and social innovations - is controversial and can be answered differently depending on the subject area. In addition to upheavals and change, continuities and forces of inertia in the world of work can also be recognised, which highlight the stability of existing structures, institutions and norms.

The consequences analysed in the profile initiative include those relating to the well-being and health of employees, to education and life chances, to gender relations and to the relationship between labour and life and its spatial organisation. The question of social inequalities is a central dimension of all fields of investigation.

The profile initiative ‘Labour and Social Change’ includes a large number of research fields, such as the joint project “Sorgetransformationen. Forschungsverbund interdisziplinäre Carearbeitsforschung“, which is funded by the Landesforschungsförderung der Behörde für Wissenschaft, Forschung, Gleichstellung und Bezirke (BWFG).

The profile initiative comprises 28 members from all eight faculties at the University of Hamburg. The disciplines involved are: Sociology, Education, Medicine, Economics and Business Administration, Law, Psychology, Geography and Cultural Anthropology.

The profile initiative is divided into several fields of research.

Research Field (1): Labour market, welfare state and distribution

In the field of ‘Labour market, welfare state and distribution’, we focus on the dynamic changes in labour markets and welfare states as well as the distributional effects of these changes. Developments such as digitalisation, demographic change and climate change, as well as changing global competitive conditions, are accompanied by changing challenges for welfare state regulation and social security. Socio-demographic groups (e.g. by education, age or gender) are affected by these changes to varying degrees, whereby existing distributional inequalities are reinforced and new ones may arise. We analyse these effects against the background of specific political measures, but also the setting of general framework conditions at national, European and global level.

Research Field (2): Working conditions, competence and subject

In the field of ‘Working conditions, competence and subject’, we analyse current forms of work from a subject-oriented perspective. On the one hand, this includes the requirements side, such as questions of necessary qualifications and professional and social competences as well as the further development of professional norms and processes. On the other hand, we look at the workloads and health conditions as well as the subjective demands on work and the strategies of the employees. In doing so, we include a broad spectrum of activities and professions - from industrial to immaterial labour, from simple service work to highly qualified knowledge and creative work, from nursing to teaching professions, from precarious to institutionally secured work.

Current challenges for the organisation of labour and the subjects of labour include the reorganisation of work in the context of ‘new work concepts’ and digitalisation, as well as the challenges posed by socio-ecological change.

Research Field (3): Care, labour and family

The focus area ‘Care, labour and family’ focusses on paid and unpaid work. In particular, we examine the localisation of work in the field of tension between market, state and family. This concerns the division of market labour and (family) care work as well as the gender division of care work. Welfare states set central framework conditions here, whereby a change can be observed in the form of the expansion of care services and family benefits, but also the marketisation of health services and care.

Research Field (4): Labour, digitalization and spatial mobility

In the focus area ‘Labour, digitalisation and spatial mobility’, we examine upheavals as well as continuities in the organisation and design of work with regard to its spatial and technological dimensions. In the course of the digitalisation of work, understood as an element of a socio-technical development, a fundamental restructuring of the spatial organisation of work can currently be observed, ranging from the expansion of location-flexible and mobile work (including remote work) to technology as an additional player in work processes (including digital personnel procedures, digital care assistants, digital and hybrid qualification procedures) and the redistribution of work within the framework of global labour division structures. At the same time, local and cross-border forms of mobility are changing, including changes in commuter mobility and migration movements.