Hard Work in New Jobs ― The Quality of Work and Life in European Growth Sectors

Hard Work in New Jobs investigates hard work and new and expanding jobs in Europe. The interrelationship between the labour market and welfare regimes, quality of work and quality of life is played out at many levels: the institutional; the organizational level of the company and its customers or clients; the level of everyday life at the workplace and beyond it; and the level of workers' careers and biographies. So far, there have been limited attempts to connect these levels in analysing the interrelationship between job growth, quality of work and quality of life. The present book aims to do just that and connects analyses of the structure and meaning of 'hard work'. The book explores the configurations and factors that shape 'hard work' on the European level, the levels of European and national sectors, the levels of companies and the career trajectories and experiences of workers in catering, cleaning, construction, elderly care, and waste management.

Ursula Holtgrewe is Senior Researcher and member of the management team at Forschungs und Beratungsstelle Arbeitswelt, Austria, and teaches sociology at Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. She was co-ordinator of the Walqing project, and her research interests include service work and organization, social theory, work and organization studies, new technology, and gender.

Vassil Kirov is Associate Professor in the Institute for the Study of Societies and Knowledge, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (ISSK-BAS) and Associate Researcher at the Centre Pierre Naville, University of Evry and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI). His research interests include the sociology of enterprise, work and organisation, industrial relations and Europeanisation. Vassil has been a researcher in large EU-funded research projects (SMALL, WORKS, WALQING) and has worked as an external expert for the European Commission, the International Labour Organisation, the European Foundation for Working and Living Conditions, etc. He has published several books and articles in international scientific journals.

Monique Ramioul is the Director of the Work and Organisation Research Group at the Research Institute for Work and Society, HIVA, University of Leuven, Belgium. She is a sociologist and her main research interests include organization restructuring, changes in work, skills and qualifications, and quality of work. Her research experiences include the management and co-ordination of large-scale European projects, the management of a research team, and research on work and organization in both qualitative (case studies) and quantitative (surveys) research studies.