The politics of equality: The evolving nature of equality agendas at work in the UK and Europe in a context of political uncertainty

'The politics of equality' is a project funded by the Economic & Social Research Council involving Professor Miguel Martinez Lucio, Dr Stefania Marino, and Dr Holly Smith (Research Associate) of the University of Manchester. It also includes the collaboration of Dr Heather Connolly of the Grenoble Ecole de Management as part of the team. The project team has a long history of mutual collaboration and have published extensively on matters related to social inclusion, equality, regulation, and workplace level change. The project runs for three years from 2021-2024.

The project aims to contrast the experiences and issues related to equality at work in terms of policy and regulation within the UK to other cases within Europe – France, the Netherlands, and Spain – which have made an explicit and concerted effort to engage with a more progressive and inclusive approach to equality. The project focuses on the rhetoric and policy development of equality and regulation at work and within organisations. It aims to outline key paradigm shifts leading to an engagement with equality and ways in which these are understood and responded to within the sphere of work and employment in terms of employment rights, state interventions and enforcement, as well as social rights. The research also aims to outline the nature of new challenges and issues that have emerged and how these have been responded to by various organisations across the private and public sphere.

Through a rigorous qualitative methodological approach involving in-depth interviews and focus groups in each national context with statutory and non-statutory actors including employers, trade unions, policy actors, NGO’s, and other academics and experts, the project aims to understand how equality policies have developed across time within different national, institutional, and political contexts, and how the countries have engaged with the notion of equality at work in terms of its language, practice, and institutional sustainability.

In a context of political uncertainty, especially with major challenges emerging to the contours and nature of equality strategies including Brexit, the rise in populist discourse, and external shock factors such as the Coronavirus crisis, this timely project will utilise the Work and Equalities Institute and its well-established links with the practitioner community to disseminate academic research outputs, national research briefings, as well as best practice, and to develop discussions on the challenges facing the progressive regulation of equality and related policies.

Visit The politics of equality at work to find out more.