The pre-crisis socio-economic model has failed. Unemployment - particularly youth unemployment - is destructively high, precarious work is expanding, growing numbers of workers are found among the working poor, and an evolving awareness of inequality has galvanised policy debates across the globe. Yet the reforms in policies and institutions that would counteract these trends have yet to materialise. This policy failure has triggered a broader unease about the future of work. To design policies that could transform this future, however, demands further investigation of complex and intersecting issues that include the role of labour regulation in development strategies; the disproportionate presence of vulnerable workers (e.g. youth, women, minorities, migrant workers) in unacceptable forms of work (UFW); the most effective strategies for protecting workers in fragmented labour markets, curbing income inequality and reducing informality; and the long-run impact of austerity policies.

The 4th RDW Conference will investigate key dimensions of the future of work. Papers are invited that focus on four thematic issues:

1. Worker protection: wages, hours, and the employment relationship;
2. Income security in the era of widening inequality – labour income, social protection, and well-being;
3. Labour market regulation and development – political economy of policy reforms and their outcomes; and
4. Reaching out to vulnerable workers: voice, actions, and the role of collective labour relations.