Overview
Aims and objectives
Through this project, which was funded by the 5th Framework Programme of the EC, the CBR was part of a network exploring the implications for social policy of the rise of the knowledge economy in Europe. The central concept used here is Amartya Sen’s notion of ‘capability’. The issue is how far the process of European integration can be used to promote an equitable distribution of capabilities, their development and their reinforcement in law and social convention. The project used a sample of regions and firms in five European countries. Through empirical research, the network analysed a range of business policies and public interventions that are aimed at integrating changes in the form of work into the organisation of the economy, employment and welfare provision.
Results and dissemination
The project began in October 2002 and ran to March 2006. Simon Deakin and Jude Browne carried out case studies of the use by enterprises of corporate governance mechanisms to promote gender equality and diversity, and Simon Deakin, Ana Lourenço (PhD candidate, Cambridge Judge Business School) and Stephen Pratten (King’s College, London) looked into innovation, regulatory change and the effects of regional policy in the media sector. Renee Claude Drouin (PhD candidate, Faculty of Law) examined international framework agreements between multinational companies and trade union federations, and Richard Hobbs (PhD, Faculty of Law: completed 2006) looked at the link between corporate social responsibility and the implementation of labour standards in the area of working time. Simon Deakin and Frank Wilkinson carried out theoretical and historical work on capability theory. Simon Deakin and Alain Supiot (Nantes) coordinated a project on links between the legal concept of capacity and the capability approach. Several workshops were held: one, in Cambridge, initiated a comparative study of corporate restructuring in Britain and France with colleagues from IDHE-Cachan; a second, in Nantes, was concerned with the comparative study of the legal notion of ‘capacity’ (March 2003); and network-wide workshops held in Paris in December 2003 and Warsaw in June 2004 heard presentations from the teams of preliminary results from the sectoral and enterprise-based case studies. In Cambridge a workshop was held in March 2005 which brought together the legal and economic components of the project. In January 2006 a workshop was organized by Simon Deakin at Doshisha University, Japan, using funds from the CBR’s collaboration with the ITEC centre at Doshisha, on the theme of social dialogue, at which presentations from the Eurocap project were made together with contributions from researchers from Japan, the US and Australia. The results of this work will be published in the journal Corporate Governance: An International Review in January 2007. The final conference of the Eurocap project was held in Nantes in February 2006. Simon Deakin and Steve Pratten both gave presentations of the UK-based work.
Project leader
Simon Deakin
Research associates
Jude Browne
Stephen Pratten (King’s College London)
PhD students
Ana Lourenço (Cambridge Judge Business School)
Renée Claude Drouin (Faculty of Law)
Richard Hobbs (Faculty of Law)
Project status
Completed
Project dates
2002-2006
Funding
European Commission Fifth Framework Programme
Output
Working papers
Browne, J., Deakin, S., Hobbs, R., Lourenço, A. and Pratten, S. (2006) ‘From employability to capability: sectoral and enterprise-based case studies from the UK’. UK Final Report for WP2, Eurocap.
Deakin, S. (2006) ‘Capacitas’: contract law and the preconditions of a market economy’ CBR WP No. 325, June 2006.
Deakin, S. and Hobbs, R. (2006) ‘Corporate social responsibility, social dialogue and capability for voice.’ UK Final Report for WP5, Eurocap project.
Deakin, S. et al. (2006) ‘The social responsibility of enterprises and the capability approach: findings from Eurocap WP5.’ Final Report of WP5, Eurocap.
Deakin, S., Hobbs, R., Konzelmann, S. and Wilkinson, F. (2006) ‘Anglo-American corporate governance and the employment relationship: a case to answer?’ CBR WP No. 308, June 2005.
Deakin, S. (2005) ‘The comparative evolution of the employment relationship’ CBR WP No. 317, December 2005.
Deakin, S. (2005) ‘The capability concept and the evolution of European social policy’ CBR WP No. 303, March 2005.
Deakin, S., Lourenço, A. and Pratten, S. (2005) ‘The liberalisation of British television production: a case study in industrial change’ mimeo.
Barnard, C., Deakin, S. and Hobbs, R. (2004) ‘Reflexive law and the evolution of labour standards: the case of working time’, CBR working paper no. 294, December 2004.
Deakin, S., Lourenco, A. and Pratten, S. (2003) ‘Competition and capabilities in British television production’, Eurocap project working paper.
Books
Deakin, S. and Morris, G. (2005) Labour Law (4th. ed.) (Oxford: Hart).
Deakin, S. and Wilkinson, F. (2005) The Law of the Labour Market: Industrialisation, Employment and Legal Evolution (Oxford: OUP).
Deakin, S. and Wilkinson, F. (2005 forthcoming) The Law of the Labour Market: Employment, Industrialisation and Legal Evolution (Oxford: OUP).
Journal articles
Deakin, S. and Hobbs, R. (forthcoming) ‘False dawn for CSR? Shifts in regulatory policy and the response of the corporate and financial sectors in Britain’ forthcoming, Corporate Governance: An International Review.
Deakin, S. (2006) ”Capacitas’: contract law and the preconditions of a market economy’, forthcoming, European Review of Contract Law.
Deakin, S. (2006) ‘Labour law, information and consultation requirements, and restructurings in the context of insolvencies and business transfers: the case of Rover’ forthcoming, Travail et Emploi.
Deakin, S., Hobbs, R., Konzelmann, S. and Wilkinson, F. (2006) ‘Anglo-American corporate governance and the employment relationship: a case to answer?’ Socio-Economic Review, 155-174.
Deakin, S. (2005) ‘The coming transformation of shareholder value’ Corporate Governance: an International Review, 13: 11-18.
Deakin, S. and Armour, J. (2004) ‘Le sauvetage de Rover: une alternative au pouvoir de l’actionnaire?’ L’homme et la société, no. 152-153 (2004/2-3): 79-96.
Deakin, S. and Wilkinson, F. (2004) ‘The evolution of collective laissez-faire’ Historical Studies in Industrial Relations, 17: 1-43.
Book chapters
Deakin, S. (2005) ‘The capability concept and the evolution of European social policy’, in M. Dougan and E. Spaventa (eds.) Social Welfare and EU Law (Oxford: Hart Publishing).
Deakin, S. (2005) ‘Social rights in a globalised economy’, in P. Alston (ed.) Labour Rights as Human Rights (Oxford: OUP), 25-60.
Deakin, S., Hobbs, R., Konzelmann, S. and Wilkinson, F. (2005) ‘Working corporations: corporate governance and innovation in labour-management partnerships in Britain’, in M. Martinez-Lucio and M. Stuart (eds.) Partnership and Modernisation in Employment Relations (London: Routledge), 63-82.
Browne, J., Deakin, S. and Wilkinson, F. (2004) ‘Capabilities, social rights and European market integration’, in Salais, R. and Villeneuve, R. (eds) Towards a European Politics of Capabilities (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 293-316.
Deakin, S. and Pratten, S. (2004) ‘Commentary: the scope of public service broadcasting’, in Peacock, A. (ed) Public Service Broadcasting without the BBC? (London: IEA), 82-96.
Conference/Workshop papers
Deakin, S., and Hobbs, R. (2006) False dawn for CSR? Shifts in regulatory policy and the response of the corporate and financial sectors in Britain Doshisha Workshop, January 2006, and FP6 meeting, Louvain-la-Neuve, February 2006.
News
12 May 2005: The Law of the Labour Market