Labour Law Beyond Growth and Productivism: An Introduction

This introductory chapter to the edited volume Labour Law Utopias: Post-Growth and Post-Productive Work Approaches explains how the authors in the book use the idea of utopia as a method to offer forward-looking ideas for a more human-centred and green world of work and what that could mean for labour law. After explaining why there is a need for the use of utopias, the authors elaborate on the two approaches that underlie those utopias: post-growth and post-productive work. These approaches have been chosen because they respond to important issues for the future of work and present serious challenges to labour law. The chapter concludes with trends identified by most authors in the book, such as the need for a socioecological labour law and a re-evaluation of the meaning of work; conflicting ideas, such as whether there will be less work or lower economic productivity; and issues for further research, particularly how to realize some ideas of the labour law utopias.