During the Barroso Commissions (2004–2014) economic goals were deemed of much greater importance than social goals and social policy was largely seen as an obstacle to economic growth, innovation and balanced budgets. As a consequence, in that period, there were few new EU initiatives in the field... Find out more

Recent innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) have been at the core of massive technological changes that are transforming work. AI is now widely used to automate business processes and replace labour-intensive tasks while changing the skill demands for those that remain. AI-based tools are... Find out more

As part of its mission to connect academic research to the world of work Transfer tries to stay abreast of public and policy debates, and, where possible, to steer them towards subjects that are likely to preoccupy European trade unions in the coming years. This is well reflected in the three... Find out more

Editorial Addressing the climate emergency is coming to be recognised as a top policy priority by more and more policy-makers. In order to rein human activity back within planetary limits our entire production and consumption model needs a fundamental, paradigmatic change. The welfare state that... Find out more

Editorial Tomas Berglund, Torsten Müller One of the greatest risks affecting workers on today’s labour markets is unemployment. Losing one’s job usually entails not only the loss of one’s main source of income, but also psychological consequences resulting, for example, from the loss of colleagues... Find out more

Editorial David Natali This issue of Transfer addresses some of the main analytical and substantive questions stemming from the pandemic that first hit Europe in February 2020. The magnitude of the crisis, in terms of both its impact on health and well-being, and its consequences for economic... Find out more

Editorial Vera Šćepanović, Philippe Pochet The past decade has not been easy for the European trade union movement, and the still ongoing COVID-19 crisis has only added urgency to some of the longstanding questions: how to cope with technological transformations and climate change, with ageing... Find out more

Editorial Mathew Johnson, Valeria Pulignano This thematic special issue of Transfer titled ‘Transforming care work within an era of changing priorities of care policy’ explores how policy, institutional and market-driven transformations of care regimes across Europe impact upon the quality of care... Find out more

Editorial Wieteke Conen, Karin Schulze Buschoff Over recent decades, the nature and organisation of work have been transformed as a result of – among other things – technological developments, institutional reforms and globalisation. This has resulted in more flexible and fragmented labour markets... Find out more

Editorial Lisa Dorigatti, Roberto Pedersini Inequality has been a growing concern in recent years. The internationalisation of production and markets, the rampant financialisation of the economy, the deregulation of labour markets, and the retrenchment of welfare systems are only some of the factors... Find out more