Many studies nowadays focus on taking stock of the platform economy in Europe (e.g., investigating its magnitude, business models, career and job characteristics of workers, ...), surprisingly the occupational safety and health (OSH) implications of platform work have remained largely under the radar. Against this background, the proposed project aims to (i) investigate the OSH risks and regulations of platform work and (ii) provide recommendations to foster a safe and healthy occupational environment for platform workers in European countries based on the results of this study. Pursuing these aims, the project adopts a mixed-method study design organised into two work packages (WP) and involves platform workers living in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. WP1 will consist in a European mixed-method cohort of platform workers. WP1 will explore longitudinally ways in which platform work is associated with OSH-risks and poor health and the experiences of platform workers in regard to OSH of their jobs. WP2 aims to research ways for promoting changes for safer and healthier occupational environments for platform work. For doing so, WP2 will explore how do platform work managers perceive the OSH of employees/workers, what are the characteristics of platforms that maintain a healthy work environment and what are the regulatory contexts and challenges in terms of OSH posed by platform of work. Both WPs will explore similarities and differences across countries and forms of platform work, thereby contextualising the findings about health and platform work within different regulatory environments. The expected results of this project will provide new and original scientific understanding of an understudied and evolving challenge for the future world of work. Drawing on the new scientific understanding, the project will provide new guidance for policymakers, companies and trade unions to protect the health of the European workforce.

The current economic crisis, the consequent rise of unemployment and the limitation of welfare resources in many Western European countries is resulting in the worsening of working and living conditions of a significant part of the EU citizenship. The raise of low-skilled immigration towards such countries is increasingly perceived as a 'threat' for the host societies. Conflicts and differences between national and migrant workers are becoming increasingly manifest, not only in the labour arena but also in the wider society. Discriminatory sentiments and episodes of violence concerning ethnic minorities are spreading. In the applicant's view, the responses of the social actors to the interplay between migration and employment in the host countries will be important in shaping the future of Europe's social fabric. Among such actors, trade unions play an important role not only because immigration is primarily linked to labour but also because many conflicts occur in the labour arena both at the individual and collective level. This project aims at analysing trade union responses to immigration, immigration policies and a broad range of migrant workers, and at understanding the trade unions' (actual and potential) role in the economic and social integration of immigrants. Furthermore, it focuses on the trade union's role in mediating conflicting interests between national and migrant workers. The research develops a comparative international perspective by looking at a national context particularly affected by recent immigration (UK) and expanding on a previous comparative study on Italy and the Netherlands carried out by the applicant in her doctoral research. The aim of the comparison is a) to highlight differences in trade unions' formal debates, actions and outcomes related to the inclusion of migrant workers across the three countries and b) to point out explanatory variables and mechanisms for observed differences. The analysis addresses three main aspects: 1) factors that influence union stances towards labour immigration, immigration policies and migrant workers themselves - particular attention will be devoted to analyse the influence of the European policies related to immigration and free movement of labour on national trade unions responses; 2) the effects of union attitudes on immigration policies and migrant workers; and 3) the dynamics and methods of trade union interaction with migrant workers. Being situated at the intersection between migration studies and employment relations, this research will contribute to the scholarly debate in these fields: a) migration studies (the integration of migrants in host European countries in the context of the current economic decline and increase of social hostility); b) comparative employment relations (revitalization studies and varieties of capitalism approaches); c) the sociology of labour and labour market studies (analysis of labour market dynamics in terms of increasing flexibilization and migration); d) the Europeanization of migration policies debate. Furthermore, by focusing on social cohesion, the inclusion of migrants in the labour market and host societies, this research has the potential to address sensitive social issues and to highlight best practices and responses. Through the dissemination of research findings - inside and beyond the academic sphere - and the promotion of dialogue with potential beneficiaries and users, this research aims at resulting in concrete proposals for action.

Between 2022-23 the UK saw a wave of strike action unprecedented since the 1980s and included action by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) - a union that has not taken action in England before. Existing studies of strikes generally distinguish between proximate and underlying causes, but agree that they are multi-causal social phenomena that are not reducible to a single factor. Strikes remain an important subject for study because they are often the 'tip of the iceberg', reflecting underlying tensions and grievances in the workplace, organisation and wider sector. Further, their occurrence may reflect the efficiency (or otherwise) of the machinery for the settlement of grievances at national or organisational level. While it is clear that pay and inflation were the immediate drivers for recent public and private sector industrial action, the narratives of those on strike in the public services pointed to a wider context reflecting the reduced capacity of public services and changes in work and the context of work that pre-dated, but were intensified by COVID-19. This research aims to investigate the 2022-23 public service strikes in three public services, health, education and rail, represented by four trade unions and focussing on teachers, nurses, paramedics, and rail workers. It will utilise first-hand participant accounts that explore the processes, dynamics, meanings and significance of strikes from the bottom-up, but located within their wider institutional, political, economic and social contexts. With a perceived crisis in many areas of the public services marked by chronic staff shortages, the research explores the significance of potential disruptions to professional identity and status related to the erosion of public service service delivery that may affect the relationship between staff and service users as well as organisational commitment. While in the past unions that highlight professional identity have been assumed to be less likely to organise industrial action, the complex dynamics between professionalism and industrial action deserves further attention against the backdrop of the recent resurgence of labour and strikes in UK public services. The research will look at the extent to which these issues were motivators for industrial action across occupations and sectors of the public services, in addition to pay and inflation. Women now comprise a majority of UK trade union members, largely a reflection of the enduring strength of public service trade unionism. This research additionally considers the diversity of participants in recent industrial action in terms of race, gender and age and how these different social identities were or were not reflected or articulated in industrial action. The research will take an intersectional lens to industrial conflict and will thus advance the theorisation of intersectionality within the context of work and employment. The research will have significant social and economic impact with improved understanding of the key issues for public service workers that underpin distal and proximal causes of strikes that may help to reduce future conflict and the negative economic and social impacts of industrial action, including on productivity. It will inform public sector pay setting and the work of pay review bodies by illuminating the wider factors that may need to be addressed beyond pay to allay industrial conflict. Findings will have implications for professional bodies such as the CIPD, refocusing human resources and practices on conflict resolution and informing HR practitioners and unions in their negotiations.

Promoting decent work standards is increasingly considered an essential element in policy agendas to achieve more sustainable and inclusive growth. However, the implementation of decent work standards in a fragmented global economic system has proven to be challenging, and there is evidence of widening inequalities and poverty within and across countries linked to disparities in employment standards and conditions. In short international and national policies do not seem to be delivering on decent work and this in turn has reanimated local policy debates, mainly evident in cities and urban areas, about how to tackle issues of precariousness and inequality. Although they are potentially significant in their own right, there is a clear need to scale up, connect and learn from these localised developments. Through comparative mixed methods research I will explore the different approaches taken to enhancing working conditions in cities and the ways in which a range of actors interact across different geographical spaces to promote fundamental notions of justice, decency and dignity at work. By focusing on six diverse cities around the world - Manchester (UK); Bremen (Germany); Buenos Aries (Argentina); Montreal (CA); New York (USA); and Seoul (South Korea); this project will explore how the type and quality of jobs on offer in different local contexts have direct and indirect effects on wider issues of inequality and social justice, and how different actors respond to issues of labour market exclusion, poverty and insecurity. All of these cities have engaged in decent work initiatives, including local political commitments to tackling low wages and precarious work, and have seen trade union and worker mobilisation around specific issues such as labour rights and workplace democracy. At a time of continued volatility and uncertainty in the global economy, the current project seeks to both recognise and highlight good practice in respect of improving the quality of work, while also exploring the conditions under which a decent work agenda can be developed and sustained. In this sense, 'Cities' provide a theoretical lens through which to view long-run changes in the global economy and the labour market and to examine closely the 'winners and losers' of greater financial integration and increased capital and labour mobility. By combining high quality academic research outputs with ongoing impact and knowledge exchange activities, the project seeks to provide both theoretical and practical answers to pressing global concerns around low pay, inequality and insecurity. The UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship represents an excellent opportunity for me to build on my existing research activities and contacts to and to establish a distinct and innovative international research agenda encompassing the global north and south, that has a direct impact on policy and practice.

Theatre has been used as a tool for agitation and organisation in workers' movements for centuries, while movement activists have rehearsed, choreographed, and performed protests and direct-action tactics to achieve their political goals. Previous research has suggested that these strategies can be effective, and, in fact, that rather than an add-on or afterthought to political organising, performance is integral to the articulation and function of workers' movements. There is also evidence to suggest that as well as having an impact on specific campaigns, performance can help a movement cohere and endure, by generating ideas, feelings, and shared activities to build a collective consciousness and a way of life. However, while a vibrant body of research on performance-activism has accumulated in recent years, so far, no in-depth examination exists as to how this pertains to contemporary workers' movements, specifically. There is also a disconnect between recent analyses of performance-activism and historical research on performance-based approaches of organised labour movements of the 20th century. This is despite the international labour movement continuing to evolve in challenging 21st-century contexts, whose activists acknowledge the significance of the creative legacies of their political predecessors on current campaigns. This study starts with the hypothesis that to gain a holistic understanding of how performance operates in the current political sphere, one must attend to these connections. Specifically, it examines how performance is currently deployed by labour movement activists in the form of agitprop theatre, direct-action tactics, and as a mode of political organisation, taking into account the historical lineage of specific approaches. The Fellowship will provide me with the time, mentorship, and development opportunities I need to build on my prior work with trade unions and theatre-makers to develop this cutting-edge research agenda and solidify my position as an expert on labour movement culture. As well as examining significant protests and performances that have not yet received academic attention, I will bring to light underused and, until now, undiscovered archives, including personal and public collections. Project partners and an international advisory board are in place to support this activity and the development of a collaborative theory of performance in workers' movements that will challenge existing knowledge by centring the aims and expertise of those who produce it. A programme of activist-led workshops will illuminate how performance is folded into the day-to-day activity of groups working in the UK, Brazil, and India, pilot innovative research methods, and generate new knowledge and materials to build awareness of performance as it is harnessed for social justice. The workshops also have the potential to catalyse new practice in the field, and to influence labour movement policy. Further training and support will enable me to create activities and resources to deepen disciplinary engagement with key themes, encourage cross-disciplinary exchange between scholars of theatre and performance, art and labour movement history, and political and social movement theory, and facilitate the engagement of people from various backgrounds with materials, practices, and debates. These resources include an academic monograph, a purpose-built, open-source archive, and a Teaching Enrichment Workshop for sixth-form students developed through the University of Exeter's Widening Participation programme. I will gain leadership and management skills through the supervision of the PDRF, an activist-practitioner whose peer-reviewed article for a leading journal will make an important intervention in the field. The Fellowship acts as a launchpad into the next phase of our careers while creating an indispensable resource to increase access to and understanding of working class and activist culture.