Research

The world of work is being transformed by the deregularisation, digitalisation, robotisation, population ageing, and migration and impacted by shocks such as financial crises, the pandemic, and the current energy crisis. The erosion of secure employment is a phenomenon that transcends nation-state borders. We are also witnessing the increase of precarious work especially in, but not limited to, sectors like cleaning, construction and agriculture and in new modes of organising work such as the platform economy.

Tackling Precarious and Informal Work in the Nordic Countries or PrecaNord (2022-2026) is a four-year research project that studies the prevalence and trends, institutional contexts and experience of workers in Finland, Norway, and Sweden. We use an industry-specific perspective and focus on the cleaning and construction sector as well as platform-based on-demand work. This allows us to analyse how workers experience this kind of work, what are the consequences of precarious and informal work to their livelihoods and sense of belonging, and trust in society at large. We believe that our results will contribute to understanding the importance of secure employment to individuals and societies in the Nordics and beyond.

PrecaNord involves researchers with expertise in sociology, anthropology, economics and migration studies from the universities in Helsinki, Lund, Bergen and Stockholm and documentarist Petter Korkman. Check out our team through this link.

PrecaNord at the Future Nordics webpage

Our broad research question is: How and in which ways is precarious and informal work a challenge for the Nordic model?

In addition we seek answers to these more specific research questions:

1. How should precarious and informal work be conceptualised in the Nordics?
2. What are the prevalence, trends, and drivers of precarious and informal work in Finland, Norway and Sweden?
3. In which ways can different institutional contexts, e.g. policy and multi-level governance structures, explain the diversity of precarious and informal work in Finland, Sweden and Norway?
4. How is precarious work perceived in the selected labour sectors by key stakeholders (trade unions, employers, civil servants)?
5. How do workers experience precarious and informal work and what are its consequences for their well-being, sense of belonging, and trust in society and their own futures?

Given our backgrounds in different disciplines we apply quantitative and qualitative methods to achieve the following research aims: 

1. Advance conceptual and methodological understanding on how precarious and informal work should be defined, analysed and measured across the Nordics.
2. Provide detailed information on the prevalence, trends, drivers, and consequences of precarious and informal work for workers, employers, and society.
3. Discuss and suggest suitable and feasible policy responses.

In order to answer the main research question and the five specific research questions above, PrecaNord consists of five, cross-cutting empirical work packages (WP) and a work package on management, engagement and dissemination (WP6). Our empirical work packages are:

WP1: Theoretical analysis of the state of precarious and informal work
WP 2: Economic analysis of the prevalence & drivers of precarious and informal work
WP 3: Comparative analysis of the institutional contexts of precarious and informal work
WP 4: Qualitative study of key experts' & employers' understandings of precarious and informal work
WP 5: Ethnographic and qualitative studies of three labour sectors

We will disseminate our research findings through academic articles mainly but also visually. Petter Korkman, a documentarist will produce a series of short video clips that focus on key quotes and findings from the interview materials.

If you are interested in our research findings, you will find them here on our website (publications). You can also follow us on Twitter @PrecaNord.