Digitalisation, migration, social cohesion and stability of the liberal democracy – these are megatrends Europe must face in the future. In this podcast by EZA (European Centre For Workers’ Questions), we’ll talk about that from the workers’ perspective. Travel with us to different projects, persons, and organisations to find out about challenges but also perspectives for the social future of Europe.
It’s something, that makes the EU unique. Its sophisticated design of the welfare state protects us from the risks of life such as unemployment, illness, and aging. Some people argue it’s too expensive and its funding inhibits economic growth. Scientists from HIVA and EUROFOUND would strongly disagree. In this episode, we’ll find out that the contrary is true. The welfare state is an economic and social advantage, and we should put lots of effort into reinforcing it.
Millions of products are just a mouse click away. It just takes us one or two days of waiting until we’ll get our product delivered by Amazon. It’s a comfortable system for us as customers. But how about the people working there? In this episode, we talk to Ellen Reese and Jake Alimahomed-Wilson who published a book about Amazon’s system: The Cost of Free Shipping – Amazon in the Global Economy. We also listen to the insights of Norbert Faltin, a former works council at Amazon to find out how dangerous Amazon is for workers but also for the democracy of Europe.
England is the motherland of industry and workers as we know them. Especially the north of the country is very proud of this heritage. However, due to Brexit and deregulation, times get harder and harder for workers. We’ll travel to the EZA-member St. Antony’s Centre in Manchester and Blackpool to find out how Brexit has dramatically affected social cohesion in the UK.