Project R-15951

LabourFlows: Infrastructures of Labour Power Flows through Warehouses in Europe (Research)

Over the past 50 years, jobs offering a living wage have vanished for many Europeans. Precarious work and stagnating wages have left many struggling to make ends meet. Economic shocks like the 2008 crisis and the pandemic have worsened these challenges, as indicated by declining birth rates, aging populations, and labour shortages. The LabourFlows project introduces a new lens to understand precarious work, conceptualizing workers as a flow of labour power moving through workplaces. Like roads enable goods transport, infrastructures sustain the circulation of workers in and out of insecure jobs. These socio-material infrastructures include brokers connecting workers to employers, laws, families, local administrations and physical systems facilitating mobility. This perspective moves beyond the employer-employee relationship, to uncover the multiple related elements that coalesce to produce insecure work. LabourFlows examines labour infrastructures in Europe logistics hubs in Poland, Belgium, and Austria. Each hub reveals a unique configuration of actors, laws, and workforces. The project comparatively analyzes how precarious jobs are created, maintained but also resisted, offering insights for transformation. LabourFlows seeks to envision alternative futures for work, addressing the systems shaping insecurity and their broader societal implications.

01 January 2026 - 31 December 2028