Workers Without Companies: Towards a New Way of Working (Routledge Studies in the Sociology of Work, Professions and Organisations)

Workers Without Companies contributes to the debate on the future of work in a productive landscape that is now global, while ways of working diversify at an unprecedented pace.

Faced with several decades of mass unemployment in Europe and the activation of self-employment―especially through intermediary platforms―this book examines the transformation of the wage system not only in traditional salaried sectors but also in self-employment, agriculture, and the field of science and knowledge production. The authors identify a common movement: the growing detachment between companies and their employees. This deep-rooted and enduring trend is reshaping the wage relationship at the core of modern societies, continuously altering and destabilising workers’ lives. Recognising this shift is essential to interrogating what work―and our lives―will become in the years ahead. The book, therefore, concludes with a proposed research agenda structured around five key axes.

As such, Workers Without Companies will appeal to sociologists with interests in work and industry, employment and unemployment, organisation studies and labour relations.

Sylvie Célérier is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Lille University, and a member of the Lille Centre for Sociological and Economic Research and Studies (CLERSE)― CNRS UMR 8019.

Alberto Riesco-Sanz is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid and an Associate Researcher at the Complutense Institute for the Study of Contemporary Social Transformations (TRANSOC).