GUSTO - Meeting the challenges of economic uncertainty and sustainability through employment, industrial relations, social and environmental policies in European countries

Description

Coping with economic uncertainty while seeking security is a central dilemma of public policy in a globalising economy. A complex set of deals and conflicts are involved in the process of distributing the gains and the burdens of that uncertainty, and various forms of employment contracts and labour and social policies express their outcome. This project is concerned with the study of that process and its implications for societal models.

In the course of conflict a number of different institutions engage in new practices; and there is a new diversity of employment forms and tenures. Social policy becomes increasingly integrated with employment and industrial relations practices, while both the sustainability of the institutions themselves and their impact on the natural environment require consideration. Challenges are also presented by the different forms of governance at work in the various policy fields.

The crisis of the Keynesian model was often seen as a crisis for associational governance (or neo-corporatism), and an advance for reliance on market governance (usually assisted by strong elements of government intervention). Since then, policy-making by individual large corporations often seems to be replacing associational governance as well as government policy-making in fields of employment categories and rights, pay determination, and the determination of pensions. However, the public goods issues raised by uncertainty and environmental damage bring again into question the adequacy of governance by the market and individual firms.

The team should expect to find radical changes in the societal models that they have become accustomed to using in the analysis of social policy. There is a search for new modes of governance, or new combinations of old ones.

Proposal:	225301
Funding scheme:	Collaborative project (small and medium scale focused research project)
Activity:	Activity 2 - Combining economic, social and environmental objectives in a European perspective
Research area:	Socio-economic development trajectories
Topic:	Analysing, Comparing and evaluating the various societal models in a medium-to-long-term perspective
Estimated EC contribution:	€1 496 830
Starting date:	01.03.2009
Duration:	36 months
Title:	Meeting the challenges of economic uncertainty and sustainability through employment, industrial relations, social and environmental policies in European countries
Acronym:	GUSTO
Keywords:	-
Web site:	http://www.gusto-project.eu/
Coordinator:	University of Warwick Warwick Business School UK - Coventry Colin CROUCH
Partners' List:	Stichting Universiteit van Tilburg Department of Sociology Ruud MUFFELS NL – Tilburg Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Centre d’estudis Sociológicos sobre la vida Quotidiana i el Treball Antonio MARTÍN ES – Cerdanyola del Vallès Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Centre d’Économie de la Sorbonne Jean-Claude BARBIER FR – Paris Közép-európai Egyetem Department of Political Science Dorothee BOHLE HU – Budapest Aalborg University Department for Economics, Politics and Public Administration Per Kongshøj MADSEN DK – Aalborg Masarykova Univerzita Eva CERNA CZ – Brno Universiteit van Amsterdam Hugo Sinzheimer Instituut Els SOL NL – Amsterdam University of Teramo Department of Sciences of Communication Luigi BURRONI IT – Teramo Universität Duisburg-Essen FB Bildungswissenschaften Ute KLAMMER DE – Essen London School of Economics and Political Science European Institute Iain BEGG UK – London Institut Syndical Européen pour la Recherche, la Formation, la Santé et la Sécurité Research Department Maarten KEUNE BE – Brussels McGill University Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning Department of Sociology Axel VAN DEN BERG CA – Montreal
EC Scientific Officer:	DG RTD.B Contact: Marie RAMOT
Research achievements:	GUSTO policy brief - "The governance of uncertainty and sustainability: tensions and opportunities" (January 2013) ( 434KB) GUSTO policy brief - " The Governance of Uncertainty and Sustainability: Tensions and Opportunities" (October 2012) ( 191KB)