Southern Centre for Inequality Studies

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Perspectives on the Future of Work(ers)

The Future of Work(ers) Programme produces research-driven reflections and expert commentary on the changing nature of work and its implications for inequality. Drawing on scholarship from across the Global South, these pieces explore how shifting labour markets, technologies, and employment relations are reshaping livelihoods and social outcomes, and how policy can respond to these transformations.

2024

12 November 2024 - Diana Vela-Almeida | The just energy transition ignores labour outside the formal economy. So is it just? 

11 November 2024 - Ruth Castel-Branco | A decade ago, such a protest movement in Mozambique would have been difficult to fathom

4 September 2024 - Moina Spooner with Hannah J. Dawson, Imraan Valodia and others | Africa’s ‘youthquake’: No jobs, the wrong skills and little hope 

2023

26 October 2023 - Edward Webster |  Labour’s future hangs in the balance 

1 October 2023 - Edward Webster |  Trade unions: new ways of organising in the digital age 

23 June 2023 - Fikile Masikane | Riding to survive: food couriers in three African cities 

2022

14 November 2022 - Edward Webster and Ruth Castel-Branco | Worker organisations can survive the digital age. Here’s how:

16 October 2022 - Ruth Castel-Branco | Social grants offer cash, but they aren’t a magic bullet response to inequality in the global south

16 August 2022 - Ruth Castel-Branco and Boaventura Monjane | Mozambican unions hit snooze on a national strike: why it’s a bad thing for workers 

16 June 2022 - Hannah J. Dawson and Ruth Castel-Branco | Digital labour platforms subject global South workers to ‘algorithmic insecurity’ 

27 June 2022 - Ruth Castel-Branco and Hannah J. Dawson | 4IR - a seductive idea requiring critical engagement 

27 May 2022 - Ruth Castel-Branco, Seipati Mokhema and Hannah Dawson | A reflection on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a critical framing

2021

Ruth Castel-Branco, Sarah Cook, Hannah Dawson and Edward Webster | The Future of Work in the Digital Age | 05 November 2021

Ruth Castel-Branco | South Africa’s basic income versus jobs debate: a false dilemma | 12 August 2021

Hannah J. Dawson, Liz Fouksman and William Monteith | Work as we knew it has changed. Time to think beyond the wage | 13 September 2021

Hannah J. Dawson | Stereotypes about young jobless South Africans are wrong: what they’re really up to | 14 June 2021

Hannah J. Dawson | South African president extends special COVID-19 grant. Why this is not enough | 12 February 2021

Sandiswa Mapukata, Shafee Verachia and Edward Webster | Decoding Algorithmic Control | 5 November 2021 

Edward Webster | Informal workers and flexible organisation: Seizing the Covid moment | 8 March 2021 

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