Politicising Commodification

Roland Erne is the author of European Unions: Labor's Quest for a Transnational Democracy (Cornell University Press, 2008), co-author of New Structures, Forms and Processes of Governance in European Industrial Relations (Eurofound, 2007), and co-editor of Labour and Transnational Action in Times of Crisis (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) and Transnationale Demokratie (Realotopia, 1995). His research has appeared in publications such as British Journal of Industrial Relations, Cambridge Journal of Economics, European Journal of Industrial Relations, European Political Science, Labor History, Labor Studies Journal, Industrial Relations Journal, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of European Social Policy, Socio-Economic Review, and Transfer. Sabina Stan is the author of L'agriculture roumaine en mutation: La construction sociale du marché (CNRS Éditions, 2005; Open Edition Books, 2020), co-editor of Labour and Transnational Action in Times of Crisis (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) and Life in Post-Communist Eastern Europe After EU Membership (Routledge, 2012). Her research in economic anthropology, European health policy, patient mobility, labour migration, and corruption has appeared in Social Science and Medicine, Journal of European Social Policy, Labor History, European Journal of Industrial Relations, Transfer, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Medical Anthropology, Dialectical Anthropology, Anthropologica, Anthropologie et Sociétés, and Material Culture Review. Darragh Golden is the author of Labour Euroscepticism: Italian and Irish Unions' Changing Preferences Towards the EU (ECPR Press, forthcoming) and co-editor of Labour and Transnational Action in Times of Crisis (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015). His research in comparative political economy, comparative employment relations, transnational labour activism, and EU transport policy has appeared in British Journal of Industrial Relations, European Journal of Industrial Relations, Global Labour Journal, Journal of Common Market Studies, Labor History, Rivista Giuridica del Lavoro, and Transfer. Imre Szabó is the author of The New Face of Labour Protest (Routledge, under contract). His research in comparative political economy, labour politics, social movements, and EU water policy has appeared in Economic and Industrial Democracy, European Journal of Industrial Relations, European Policy Analysis, Journal of Common Market Studies, and Transfer. Vincenzo Maccarrone is the author of several articles on the international political economy, workers in the platform economy, comparative employment relations, and transnational governance appearing in BJIR: British Journal of Industrial Relations, Economic and Industrial Democracy, European Journal of Industrial Relations, Global Labour Journal, Global Political Economy, Quaderni di Rassegna Sindacale, Rivista Giuridica del Lavoro, Transfer, and Work, Employment and Society.

• 1. Introduction; Part I. Analytical Framework: 2. European economic governance and labour politics; 3. A paradigm shift in European integration and labour politics; 4. How to assess the policy orientation of the EU's NEG prescriptions?; 5. Contextualising the EU's NEG prescriptions and research design; Part II. EU Economic Governance in Two Policy Areas: 6. EU governance of employment relations and its discontents; 7. EU governance of public services and its discontents; Part III. EU Economic Governance in Three Sectors: 8. EU governance of transport services and its discontents; 9. EU governance of water services and its discontents; 10. EU governance of healthcare and its discontents; Part IV. Comparative Analysis and Post-Pandemic Developments: 11. Labour politics and the EU's NEG prescriptions across areas and sectors; 12. The EU's shift to a post-Covid NEG regime; 13. The policy orientation of the EU's post-Covid NEG regime; 14. Conclusion; Glossary; References; Index.

'An enduring legacy of the financial crisis is the EU's embrace of a new economic governance regime, which imitates that of private sector multinational corporations. In this path-breaking, multi-dimensional comparative analysis, Erne and colleagues compellingly draw out the consequences for: the changed character of European integration; the (im)balance between the EU's economic and social dimensions; the EU's underdeveloped democratic polity; and counter interventions by social movements and organised labour.' Paul Marginson, Emeritus Professor of Industrial Relations, University of Warwick