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This article outlines the theoretical foundations of the research contributions of this edited collection about “Diversity and Discrimination in Research Organizations.” First, the sociological understanding of the basic concepts of diversity and discrimination is described and the current state of research is introduced. Second, national and organizational contextual conditions and risk factors that shape discrimination experiences and the management of diversity in research teams and organizations are presented. Third, the questions and research approaches of the individual contributions to this edited collection are presented.

Recent changes in the UK to the regulation and modes of work in the formal and informal economies are considered. Research in this field has tended to remain in silos (treating formal economy working conditions separately from research on the informal economy). The question is whether the means of work and benefits to the worker for formal and informal work are now as different as the former images of formal and informal economy work imply under a “jobs-for-life” economy. The purpose of this paper is to consider whether the current aim of government regulation of the informal economy – to formalise it – is actually of benefit to workers, as might be supposed.

This paper considers recent research findings on the formal and informal economy, using official government statistics for the UK and more detailed European studies on the informal economy.

This paper argues that formal employment in the UK is becoming more casualised, with less associated benefits to employees. Though it is still of benefit to the state to formalise informal work (to increase tax take), some of the links between formalisation and a good working environment for workers are being broken, which may lead to the informal economy becoming more popular and requiring different priorities in its regulation.

This paper argues that we need to change our assumptions and image of work in the formal economy, compared to that in the informal economy.

There is substantial evidence of discrimination at work across countries and powerful evidence that antidiscrimination laws can make a difference. This study examines the extent of protections from discrimination at work in countries around the world and which groups were best covered.

This study assesses legal protections in hiring, pay, promotions/demotions, terminations and harassment for 13 different groups across 193 countries using a database the authors created based on analysis of labor codes, antidiscrimination legislation, equal opportunity legislation and penal codes. Differences in levels of protection were examined across social groups and areas of work, as well as by country income level using Chi-square tests.

Protection from gender and racial/ethnic discrimination at work was the most common, and protection across migrant status, foreign national origin, sexual orientation and gender identity was among the least. For all groups, discrimination was more often prohibited in hiring than in promotion/demotion. There was inconsistent protection from harassment and retaliation.

Addressing discrimination at work will require a broad range of synergistic approaches including guaranteeing equal legal rights, implementation and enforcement of laws and norm change. This study highlights where legislative progress has been made and where major gaps remain.

This article presents findings from an original database containing the first data on laws to prevent discrimination in the workplace in all 193 countries around the world. The study analyzes legal protections for a wide range of groups and considers a full range of workplace protections.

Drawing upon a political economy approach, this article aims to analyze the transformations in the labor market within the context of contemporary capitalism, focusing on the phenomenon of financialization.

Financialization is defined as a distinct wealth pattern marked by a growing proportion of financial assets in capitalist wealth. Within financial markets, corporate performance is continuously assessed, in a process that disciplines management to achieve expected financial results, with consequences throughout corporate management.

We find that this phenomenon has implications for labor management, resulting in the intensification of labor processes and the adoption of insecure forms of employment, leading to the fractalization of work. These two mechanisms, added to the indebtedness of workers, constitute three elements for disciplining labor in contemporary capitalism.

We argue that these forms of discipline constitute a subsumption of labor to finance, resulting in an increase in labor exploitation. This formulation of the relationship between financialization and changes in the realm of labor also contributes to understanding the unrealizing potential of social free time in contemporary capitalism.

According to Sen's theoretical framework of capability (1985), individuals reach their full potential once they have the freedom, intended as the set of functionings at their disposal, to do so. However, many critiques have been developed against the lack of embeddedness of the capability approach in social and political relations and structures. In this article, the authors investigate the influence of three institutional contexts (Belgium, the Netherlands and France) on the respective work-related functionings of self-employed and regular workers, with a focus on human capital investment and institutional support offered to them.

Data from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) are used to highlight similarities and differences in building work-related functionings for regular and self-employed workers. A regression analysis is provided at the country level.

In the three labour markets, the authors find that the building of work-related functionings is more successful for regular employees, especially as regards institutional support. Self-employed workers, on the other hand, need to rely on their individual capability as regards employment protection and human capital investment. However, the authors find interesting differences between the three institutional contexts. In both Belgium and France, self-employed workers are subject to higher instability in terms of changes in salary and hours worked, whereas atypical work is better positioned in the Dutch labour market. The Netherlands is also characterised by a less significant gap between regular and self-employed workers with respect to participation in training.

In this article, the authors contextualise Sen's (1985) theoretical framework by taking into account the institutional differences of labour markets. In particular, the authors provide a novel application of his capability approach to regular and self-employed workers in an economically relevant European area.

The challenges of the growth of the sharing economy are becoming more and more noticeable and urgent, especially concerning labor relations (e.g. uberization). The purpose of this paper is to understand what app-based drivers think of working conditions and labor relations.

The research was carried out in three stages: bibliographical and documental research, and two empirical research, a quantitative one with the application of a questionnaire in a sample of 54 respondents and another qualitative one using an interview script with ten drivers. For data analysis, the abductive method and the content analysis technique were used.

The results reveal they have an exhausting labor routine, by checking that they work more hours per week than those who have a formal job. They are driven mainly by the extra income and flexibility that digital platforms of the sector of shared private transportation can offer, although the costs intrinsic to the activity often affect their revenues significantly.

The number of answers from women was very small, which hinders the analysis of the potential specificities of women app-based drivers. Future studies could focus on this public for a more precise analysis, to bring the discussion on gender to the working context of app-based drivers.

The authors’ intention with the research reports was to make them relevant, leading to effective policies concerning working conditions and labor relations in the sharing economy, and to stimulate other surveys to understand the activity of an app-based driver of shared private transportation.

The authors’ research and this article contribute to the discussion on new work relationships, motivations and (dis)satisfaction with the activity, from the perspective of app-based drivers.

This study aims to investigate the heterogeneous results about the impact of temporary jobs on subsequent labour market performances and to provide policymakers with further information on the effects of temporary contracts under particular circumstances.

The authors present a quantitative systematic review on the debate about the “stepping stone vs dead end” hypothesis related to the causal effect of temporary jobs on future labour market performances.

Among 78 observations from 64 articles, 32% support the hypothesis according to which temporary contracts are a port of entry into stable employment positions, 23% report ambiguous or mixed findings and the remaining 45% provide evidence in favour of the dead end hypothesis. The results from meta-regressions suggest that the stepping stone effect is more likely to emerge when self-selectivity issues are dealt with. The studies focussing on temporary work agency jobs and casual/seasonal jobs support more easily the dead end hypothesis. Finally, in more recent years and when the unemployment rate is larger, the dead end hypothesis is more likely to prevail.

Although many studies have been published on this issue, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no recent analytic economic surveys on the “stepping stone vs dead end” debate. The main contribution of this article is to fill this gap.

The purpose of this paper is to provide background on the US living wage movement, with particular attention to recent victories, and also the ways in which the US movement differs from living wage movements in other countries. It begins with some technical distinctions of terms, then analyzes the campaigns and movement for higher wages, and considers some of the challenges the campaigns have faced. It will conclude with some discussion about the future of the movement.

This is a general review of living wage campaigns in the USA. This is based on a review of existing literature and the author’s own prior research and participant observation.

The author argues that the initial living wage movement that began in the early 1990s was limited in scope but successful in building coalitions and political power to launch a much more expansive movement to raise wages in 2012.

This paper is a general summary of the last 20 years of living wage campaigns. It does not include new research.

This paper aims to explore the key anchors of the National Innovation System shaping the nature of collaboration between academic high-performance computing centres (academic HPC centres) and small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) working in the automotive and electronics sectors of the Danube region. With two main research questions, it discusses the importance of knowledge transfer and technology transfer for collaboration between University and Industry (U-I collaboration) in three groups of developmentally distinct countries: competitively advanced, competitively intermediate and competitively lagging. As main anchors of the innovation system, stable legal environment, exciting innovation policies and strong R&D funding are recognised.

A qualitative empirical study in 14 Danube region countries included 92 focus group participants, expert representatives of academic HPC centres and SMEs. The data were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed.

The findings show the main prerequisites of the framework conditions for efficient U-I collaboration evolve through a goal-oriented National Innovation Policy and developed and functioning legal environment supporting labour market and intellectual property (IP) protection and enforcement. Additionally, skilled people are needed to be able to operate with HPC, where it seems all the countries lack such skilled workforce. In competitively lagging countries, the high levels of brain drain exhibit strong impact to U-I collaboration.

Research into relationships between academic HPC centres and SMEs conducted was qualitative; therefore, limitations in terms of generalisation arise from it. On the other hand, the research is promising in terms of offering the guidance for policy makers who can use the findings when delivering innovation policy mix, adjusted to developmental level of own innovation ecosystem.

The study is among the pioneering work in U-I collaboration between academic HPC centres and SMEs from automotive and electronics industries in the Danube region. The research addresses the dynamics of collaboration and offers policy implications to strengthen the particular U-I collaboration.

本文旨在探究國家創新系統的主要支柱; 這些支柱決定了學術性的高速網路與計算中心 (註: 此為直譯) (以下簡稱學術高網算中心) 與於多瑙河地區的汽車製造業和電子產品行業內營運的中小型企業之間的合作性質。本文透過兩條主要的研究問題、去探討知識轉移和技術轉讓對大學與產業界之間的合作的重要性而這些產業是屬於在發展階段上三個明顯不同的國家組別裏的這三個組別是 競爭先進的、競爭性中級的和競爭落後的。穩定的法律環境、令人興奮的創新政策和強大的研究與開發資金被認為是創新系統的三個主要支柱。

研究人員在14個位於多瑙河地區的國家裏進行一個質性觀察研究研究涵蓋92個焦點小組參與者、來自學術高網算中心和中小型企業的專家代表。有關的數據被錄音繼而被轉寫下來最後被分析。

研究結果顯示效率高的大學產業界合作的框架條件的主要先決條件是透過一個以目標為導向的國家創新政策而逐漸形成繼而發展起來; 另外所需的條件是一個支援勞工市場、保障知識產權、並執行有關的法律的正常運作的法律環境。其次若想與學術高網算中心一起工作技術人才是必須的因學術高網算中心內的所有國家似乎欠缺技術勞動力。在落後於競爭對手的國家裏高度的人才外流對大學與產業界之間的合作會產生重大的影響。

由於研究採用的研究方法為質性研究法故研究結果、就普遍化的歸納而言是有其局限的。唯研究結果在實務方面有其作用因政策制定者在推行與科技進步與對策有關的策略時他們可把研究結果作為指引就其自身創新生態系統的發展水準而作出適當的調整。

本研究探討涉及學術高網算中心與於多瑙河地區的汽車製造業和電子產品行業內營運的中小型企業之間合作的大學產業界合作就此而言可說是開創性研究之一。本研究探究有關的大學產業界合作的變革動力並為政策制定者提供啟示以能強化有關的合作。

Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) play a crucial role in the development of any country by generating innovative ideas. However, they face inherent restrictions that hinder their innovation capabilities. It is essential to support innovation policies to overcome these barriers and foster innovation. This study aims to explore how innovation policies can reduce barriers to innovation in MSEs using the lens of innovation capabilities.

Through a multiple case study, the authors examined eight MSEs in São Paulo (Brazil) and five in Florence (Italy) to conduct this study. These countries share a similar level of importance when it comes to MSEs.

Current innovation policies could be more effective for MSEs if certain barriers they encounter are faced and resolved, such as limited financial resources and a scarcity of qualified workers. These barriers directly affect two key elements of their innovation capability: financial resources and human resources. Therefore, it is essential to develop innovation policies that target these elements directly to enable MSEs to overcome these obstacles and thrive.

This study aims to enhance the knowledge of how innovation policies can help alleviate obstacles to innovation and how they can influence the various components that comprise the innovation capability of MSEs. This research can be valuable for policymakers as it provides insight into which innovation policies impact each aspect of innovation capability, enabling them to choose the most suitable policy based on the specific needs and local circumstances of the MSEs.