RECWOWE is a Network of Excellence funded by the 6th Frame Programme of the EU. The network is coordinated by Denis Bouget at Maison des Science de l’Homme Ange Guépin, Nantes, France. Its general objective is to improve understanding of recent and current changes in relations between two relatively separate domains, namely labour markets and employment on the one hand and welfare regimes on the other. The network aims at addressing and investigating the tensions which often characterise these relations.

The work of RECWOWE is divided into four strands: Flexibility and Security, Family, Work and Welfare Regimes, Quality of Employment, and Setting the Stage for an Employment Friendly Welfare State. The Institute for Futures Studies is primarily involved in Strand 3,Quality of Employment. The strands are in turn organised into three activities: data collection, gathering and integrating existing research in the field, and new joint research activities. Of these, data collection is the first task. It involves elaborating the concept of ‘quality of employment’ and to work on relevant indicators related to its measurement. Primarily, data and reports produced by international agencies and organisations will be used, including the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), European Social Survey (ESS), ILO key indicators, OECD indicators, etc. On the basis of information from these sources we will elaborate a number of integrated indicators of job quality, skills, lifelong learning, gender equality, health and safety at work, flexibility and security, inclusion and access to the labour market, work organisation and balance, social dialogue and worker involvement, etc. RECWOWE aims at providing a complete data set on relations between work and welfare, covering 29 countries (the EU 25 plus Norway, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Romania).

The task of the second activity within Strand 3 is to bring together research from research networks and international projects. It involves research on job quality on the one hand, and research on welfare state development, performance and challenges on the other. The third activity, new joint research activities, aims at answering two general questions: Who are affected by low quality employment? and What policies are directed at improving the quality of employment?

Researchers involved in RECWOWE at the Institute for Futures Studies:

Ingrid Esser
Joakim Palme
Johan Fritzell
Kenneth Nelson
Ola Sjöberg
Olof Bäckman
Tomas Korpi
Tommy Ferrarini

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