Social Democratic Trade Unions in the Knowledge Economy: Challenges, Pathways and Dilemmas
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Social Democratic Trade Unions in the Knowledge Economy : Challenges, Pathways and Dilemmas. / Ibsen, Christian Lyhne.
In: Comparative Social Research, Vol. 35, 2021, p. 69-90.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Social Democratic Trade Unions in the Knowledge Economy
T2 - Challenges, Pathways and Dilemmas
AU - Ibsen, Christian Lyhne
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Social democratic unionism has arguably been one of the most successful worker organisations in modern history. Through collective bargaining and political influence, this type of unionism has been effective in redistributing the gains from capitalist markets. This paper reviews the challenges, pathways and dilemmas social democratic unions face in the knowledge economy. Similar to industrialisation, the knowledge economy has the potential to fundamentally change the social fabric that trade unions derive their power resources from. There are three major and interrelated challenges: (1) technological change and the knowledge economy, (2) new socio-political coalitions and (3) keeping employers in. Focussing on Denmark and Sweden, it is argued that these three challenges strike the core of social democratic unionism, as they can undermine the ability to encompass the whole labour market because of polarisation or upgrading of jobs. The paper goes on to outline three possible pathways: ‘going radical’, ‘going academic’ and ‘going old-school’. ‘Going radical’ entails a sharper focus on fighting precarious work with other regulatory means other than collective bargaining. ‘Going academic’ entails a focus on education and lifting all occupational groups. ‘Going old-school’ entails adapting the principle of collective bargaining to new types of companies and occupations while sticking to the regulatory means as before. It is argued that none of the strategies is a silver bullet to the challenges, but that a key to the success of any of the strategies is that minimum wage levels are defended, as this will fuel investment in education for lower-paid work.
AB - Social democratic unionism has arguably been one of the most successful worker organisations in modern history. Through collective bargaining and political influence, this type of unionism has been effective in redistributing the gains from capitalist markets. This paper reviews the challenges, pathways and dilemmas social democratic unions face in the knowledge economy. Similar to industrialisation, the knowledge economy has the potential to fundamentally change the social fabric that trade unions derive their power resources from. There are three major and interrelated challenges: (1) technological change and the knowledge economy, (2) new socio-political coalitions and (3) keeping employers in. Focussing on Denmark and Sweden, it is argued that these three challenges strike the core of social democratic unionism, as they can undermine the ability to encompass the whole labour market because of polarisation or upgrading of jobs. The paper goes on to outline three possible pathways: ‘going radical’, ‘going academic’ and ‘going old-school’. ‘Going radical’ entails a sharper focus on fighting precarious work with other regulatory means other than collective bargaining. ‘Going academic’ entails a focus on education and lifting all occupational groups. ‘Going old-school’ entails adapting the principle of collective bargaining to new types of companies and occupations while sticking to the regulatory means as before. It is argued that none of the strategies is a silver bullet to the challenges, but that a key to the success of any of the strategies is that minimum wage levels are defended, as this will fuel investment in education for lower-paid work.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - Social Democracy
KW - Trade unions
KW - Social partnerhip
KW - Collective bargaining
KW - Neoliberalism
KW - Knowledge economy
U2 - 10.1108/S0195-631020210000035004
DO - 10.1108/S0195-631020210000035004
M3 - Journal article
VL - 35
SP - 69
EP - 90
JO - Comparative Social Research
JF - Comparative Social Research
SN - 0195-6310
ER -
ID: 255747625