The Politics of Equality: The Evolving Nature of Equality Agendas at Work in the UK and Europe in a Context of Political Uncertainty

一系列欧洲国家在工作平等问题上取得了重大进展。就英国而言，20世纪70年代的立法，以及自那时以来对工作中与平等有关的权利的持续发展和监管，都是广泛的。在如何支持不同群体在工作中的权利方面存在一系列问题，但在性别、种族和残疾等问题上对个人权利的参与意义重大。欧洲联盟也在确保各成员国制定平等立法和政策的问题上作出了重大承诺。雇主和工会等相关组织已经看到了向新形式的平等和多样性战略的推动。该项目旨在发现，从广义上讲，这种对工作中平等问题的参与是如何变化的。从广义上讲，这个“项目”是如何变化的？对平等感兴趣的焦点是什么？变革的必要条件是什么？因此，该项目旨在了解英国、荷兰、法国和西班牙如何在语言、实践和制度可持续性方面参与工作中的平等概念。在某些情况下，重点是性别平等；在其他国家，它关注的是更广泛的群体。通过带有强烈传记元素的访谈，我们旨在详细了解平等是如何被理解和构建的。有什么共同的参考点或必要的改变吗？此外，该项目试图概述和解释所研究的四个国家在维持对平等的承诺方面出现的挑战-一般来说可以称为“良好做法”的例子。在英国，人们普遍关注平等的复杂性以及群体内部和群体之间的紧张关系——例如性别和一些lgbt问题。在西班牙，经过一段时间相对有效的社会包容措施后，移民已成为仇外政治话语中的一个问题。在法国和荷兰，仇视伊斯兰教的问题一直困扰着人们对职场平等的具体理解。我们需要知道，致力于平等问题的性质是如何促成出现的问题的——或者，这些问题是更深层次的结构性挑战或广泛的政治发展的结果。工作中的平等问题一直是破坏性政治话语的焦点：这些变化是如何影响的，为什么？我们还需要了解与这些问题相关的管理人员、工会和社会组织是如何应对这些挑战的，并维持普遍的——尽管各不相同和不平衡的——承诺，不仅在他们的组织内，而且在更广泛的范围内扩大工作中的平等。该项目旨在采访所研究的四个国家的一系列管理人员、工会成员和政策行为者。它还旨在通过其出版物和活动，就如何在面对2008年全球金融危机以来的政治和经济混乱的情况下，维持甚至深化平等议程这一问题展开对话。平等政策和制度的未来在工作中——这些政策和制度在不同角度上与其他欧盟案例联系在一起——需要放在面临类似挑战和发展的国家背景的参考框架中。这个项目的政策和实践者维度是我们的一个重要特征，因为我们的工作伴随着我们的学术目标和出版物。

There has been significant progress in a range of European countries on the question of equality at work. In the case of the UK, the legislation of the 1970s, and the ongoing development and regulation of equality-related rights at work since then, have been extensive. A range of issues exists in terms of how different groups have been supported in relation to their rights at work, but the engagement with individual rights on questions of gender, race and disability, for example, has been significant. The European Union has also seen a major commitment to the question of ensuring that equality legislation and policies are enacted in member states. Employers and related organizations, such as trade unions, have seen a push towards new forms of equality and diversity strategies. The project aims to discover how this engagement with the question of equality at work, broadly speaking, has varied. In broad terms, how has that 'project' varied? What is the focus of the interest in equality, and what have been the imperatives for change? The project, therefore, aims to understand how the UK, the Netherlands, France and Spain have engaged with the notion of equality within work in terms of its language, practice and institutional sustainability. In some cases, the emphasis has been on gender equality; in others, it has focused on a wider range of groups. Using interviews with a strong biographical element, we aim to build a detailed insight into how equality is understood and constructed. Are there any common reference points or imperatives for change? In addition, the project seeks to outline and explain within the four countries studied - as examples of what could be called 'good practice', generally speaking - the challenges that have emerged in terms of sustaining the commitment to equality. In the UK, there has been a general concern with the complexity of equality and tensions within and between groups - gender and some LGTB issues, for example. In Spain, migration has emerged as an issue within xenophobic political discourse after a period of relatively effective social inclusion measures. In France and the Netherlands, the question of Islamophobia has been unsettling specific understandings of equality at work. We need to know how the nature of commitment to the question of equality contributes to the issues that have been emerging - or are such issues the outcome of deeper structural challenges, or extensive political developments. The question of equality at work has been a focus for disruptive political discourse: how are these changes are impacting, and why? We also need to understand how managers, trade unions, and social organizations related to these issues have responded to these challenges and sustained the general - albeit varied and uneven - commitment to expanding equality at work not only in their organizations, but also more generally. The project aims to interview a range of managers, trade unionists, and policy actors within the four countries studied. It also aims to create a dialogue through its publications and events linked to the question regarding how the equality agenda can be sustained, or even deepened, in the face of the political and economic disruption since the 2008 global financial crisis. The future of equality policies and institutions at work - which have been tied to other EU cases in various perspectives - needs to put in the frame of reference of national contexts that face similar challenges and developments. This policy and practitioner dimension of the project is an important feature of what we aim to do as we work alongside our academic objectives and publications.