Torsten Geelan

The Combustible Mix of Coalitional and Discursive Power

British Trade Unions, Social Media and the People's Assembly Against Austerity

New Technology, Work and Employment, 37 (2): 161-184

This article investigates how the British trade union movement sought to challenge the politics of austerity after the North Atlantic financial crisis of 2008 by founding a union-led coalition: the People’s Assembly Against Austerity. To lay the ground for the study, it redefines the concept of discursive power as the…

The Internet, Social Media and Trade Union Revitalization

Still Behind the Digital Curve or Catching Up?

New Technology, Work and Employment, 36: 123-139

This article introduces the special issue of New Technology, Work and Employment titled “The Internet, Social Media and Trade Union Revitalization: Still Behind the Digital Curve or Catching Up?” The objectives of this special issue are threefold. First, to develop an analytical framework that can help researchers assess the role…

Towards a New Web of Rules

An International Review of Institutional Experimentation to Strengthen Employment Protections

Employee Relations, 41 (2): 313-330

The purpose of this paper is to review “institutional experimentation” for protecting workers in response to the contraction of the standard employment relationship and the corresponding rise of “non-standard” forms of paid work. The paper draws on the existing research and knowledge base of the authors as well as a…

From Financial Crisis to Social Change

Towards Alternative Horizons

Palgrave Macmillan

This edited collection critically engages with a range of contemporary issues in the aftermath of the North Atlantic financial crisis that began in 2007. From challenging the erosion of academic authority to the myth that parliamentary democracy is not worth engaging with, it addresses three interrelated questions facing young people…

The Academic Precariat

Danish Sociology, 28 (2): 27-51

Theories of social class have traditionally described highly educated people as a privileged group in society. However in the past decade several studies of the academic labour market in Europe have shown that precarious forms of employment are becoming increasingly common. This article assesses the extent to which Guy Standing’s…

Enhancing Transnational Labour Solidarity

The Unfulfilled Promise of the Internet and Social Media

Industrial Relations Journal, 48 (4): 345-364

This article examines the activities of Union Solidarity International (USI), a new UK-based organisation in the international union arena. USI seeks to encourage and support international solidarity between trade unions and other worker movements around the world by harnessing the dynamism of the Internet and social media. Drawing on a…

Worker Resistance and Media

Challenging Global Corporate Power in the 21st Century

British Journal of Industrial Relations, 54 (1): 239-240

by Lina Dencik and Peter Wilkin. Peter Lang, New York, 2015, 260 pp., ISBN 9781433124990, £98.00, hardback.

Danish Trade Unions and Young People

Using Media in the Battle for Hearts and Minds

Palgrave Macmillan

This chapter presents a case study of the ‘Are you OK?’ campaign launched in 2012 by the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and the Confederation of Professionals in Denmark (FTF) (which have since merged). Together these two organisations represented almost 100 affiliated unions and 30,000 shop stewards. The campaign’s…

Responses of Trade Union Confederations to the Youth Employment Crisis

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 19 (3): 399-413

The current economic recession has had a dramatic impact on youth employment across Europe. This article analyses responses by trade union confederations in Denmark and the UK. Looking first at their power capacities (with a specific focus on communicative power and its relevance for young people), the article moves on…