Guest editors:
- Mathieu Dupuis, Department of Industrial Relations, Université Laval
- Julie Hagan, School of Industrial Relations, Université de Montréal
- Vincent Pasquier, Department of Human Resources Management, HEC Montréal
- Sara Pérez-Lauzon, Department of Human Resources Management, HEC Montréal
The Proposed theme
The environmental and climate crisis, relatively ignored in recent decades within the field of industrial relations (Clarke and Lipsig-Mummé, 2020; Flanagan and Goods, 2022; Goods, 2017), is increasingly emerging as one of the key challenges in the sphere of work and as a central research theme for understanding the future of workers, organizations and employment regulation. While there has been some social and political consensus on the need to transition to an economy that combines ecological sobriety with decent work and good jobs (Murray et al., 2023; OIT, 2015), the consequences for employment, for the organization of work and for various actors in the world of work are far from set in stone. Furthermore, there are many uncertainties surrounding the processes, effects and governance that can influence the trajectories of current or future socio-environmental restructuring. By socio-environmental restructuring, we mean any form of change that the environmental and climate crisis provokes on work (activity) or employment (status), at different levels (e.g., workplace, organization, sector, region, nation, international), and on different objects (e.g., norms, practices, identities, strategies).
This call for papers of Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations seeks to deepen reflection on the consequences of the environmental crisis by focusing specifically on the socio-environmental restructuring of work and employment. It seeks to advance theoretical and empirical knowledge on the consequences of the environmental crisis for various actors in the world of work, for organizations and for the regulation of employment. We, therefore, seek to understand how these restructurings are translated into processes and effects and in the governance of work and employment. The purpose of this call for papers is to take a cross-cutting look at the levels, extent and scope of the issues on which the climate crisis has an impact, and on the multiple emerging risks and their unequal distribution. We also invite research exploring socio-environmental restructuring that have implications for public and industrial policies, as well as those expanding theoretical reflections in the broader field of industrial relations.
Deadline for submissions: June 15th, 2025
You can upload your manuscript directly on our platform through the following link.
We therefore frame the study of the socio-environmental restructuring of work and employment under four main categories. Contributions to this call for papers must fall under one or more of these:
- The processes of socio-environmental restructuring of work and employment: the transformations linked to the environmental crisis have the potential to disrupt the sphere of production and, by extension, the work activity in organizations. We encourage contributions that focus on the effects of socio-environmental restructuring through technological innovations, reorganizations of work, or changes in the social relations between management and the workforce.
- The effects of socio-environmental restructuring on the quality of work and employment: We also welcome proposals analyzing the effects of socio-environmental restructuring on the quality of work and employment. These could include training arrangements, skills, occupational health and safety, working hours, degree of supervision, employment status, inequalities or subjective experience at work.
- The governance of socio-environmental restructuring of work and employment: beyond the workplace and organizational levels, we are looking for contributions that address the effects of socio-environmental restructuring on institutionalized trade-offs in labor and employment governance. These are generally negotiated and regulated at the sectoral, regional and national levels and can be reflected in industrial, environmental and social policies on labor and employment issues.
- The consequences of socio-environmental restructuring of work and employment for collective and individual actors: in the wake of restructuring linked to the environmental issue, the transformation of work and employment has the potential to affect identities. We therefore encourage research that addresses the impact on the identity of collective and individual actors, whether they are conceptualized in a classical way (e.g., unions, managers, states and governments), or from a more societal perspective (e.g., territorial belonging, professional identity, rise of populism, new social actors, gender relations, age).
The contributions sought in the framework of this call for papers may be characterized by:
- a multidisciplinary and critical perspective, whether in industrial relations, sociology, economics, law or management sciences
- a theoretical or empirical ambition
- a qualitative, quantitative, historical or mixed methodological approach
- any geographical area/country/region or a comparative approach (sectoral, geographical).