Decent work and the city

The original research design for the FLF Decent Work and the City was ambitious in both scope and complexity but has proven to be both timely and relevant in a post-Covid 19 landscape of economic and political transformation. The fieldwork has generated 150 interviews so far and we estimate that there will be at least 200 by the close of phase one in October 2024.

We have published six articles in leading international journals looking at employment relations in the foundational economy, labour market transformations, the role of the local state, and bottom-up worker and community organising. We have developed important partnerships and networks across cities that bring into dialogue academic and policy experts from across disciplines to promote mutual learning and maximise research impact.

The renewal of the fellowship will allow us to add two cities to the existing sample for the purposes of targeted comparisons and provide the space in which to systematically code and analyse the dataset. This in turn will provide the basis for contextualisation and corroboration of the research findings with local city experts, and a thorough mixed-methods comparative analysis of data across cities.

These key areas of activity will build on our existing body of interdisciplinary research around decent work and the urban foundational economy and will yield important theoretical and policy insights at international, national and local scales.

In terms of research excellence and innovation, two key themes have emerged from the data collection so far i) the theoretical and practical relevance of 'cities' as a unit of analysis within comparative industrial relations research, and ii) the specific challenges surrounding decent work in the everyday foundational economy that makes up a large share of the workforce in each of our six cities a topic we explored in an international webinar and accompanying blog: https://decentworkcity.manchester.ac.uk/dwc-blog2/the-battle-to-be-seen-and-heard-essential-workers-during-and-after-covid-19/

The FLF was designed with a strong impact and engagement focus aimed at generating useful and usable data for policy makers and practitioners across each of our six cities. Throughout phase one we have worked collaboratively with a range of partners including academic institutions, policy makers, trade unions, NGOs and workers to produce relevant research findings, to generate policy recommendations, and to contribute to wider debates on work and employment at international, national and local level.

We have been invited contributors and authors for several ILO reports and events and we are working closely with the regional offices of the ILO in Chile and Argentina. We have also hosted several international roundtable and policy focused events related to the emerging research findings (both in person and online) and have successfully hosted a visiting Professor (Ian Greer) from the ILR school at Cornell University in New York. This will form the basis for a return visit to Cornell/New York in 2024.

Both the PI and RA have been invited speakers at various internal and external events and our research findings have been featured in a number of publicly accessible outputs such as blogs, industry publications, university and external research reports. Our ongoing research findings have fed into several local policy reviews and programmes of work around low pay, gender equality and improving the quality of work in care services.

This includes the Greater Manchester living wage city region programme, the Good Employment Charter implementation programme, the GM School Readiness programme, and the GM4Women 2028 policy programme. During the renewal phase, these organisations and networks will continue to provide expertise in labour rights, regulation, and community engagement, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of labour market transformations.