Today, RW is mostly conceived as an arrangement enabling flexible work organization. However, REMAKING contends that RW can be more than that. If the multiple effects induced by RW on individuals, business models and the socio-economic sphere are properly understood and addressed by policymakers, it might become a lever contributing to shaping ongoing social, economic, and spatial structural changes. At the basis of REMAKING there is a profound consideration of the ongoing megatrends (i.e., digital transformation, flexibilization of production models) that have initiated RW and of the recent shocks (i.e., the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine) that have consolidated the diffusion of different forms of RW. Through this angle, the multiple effects induced by RW call for rigorous analyses to support decision-makers in balancing opportunities and problems linked to RW for a potential rethinking of territories, namely in rural areas. REMAKING aims at delivering a policy-oriented framework reflecting the new and multi-faceted realities of RW, facilitating policymakers to adopt place-based policies balancing the opportunities and risks of RW and sharing practices to foster mutual learning on RW in the novel scenario of megatrends and shocks. These objectives will be achieved through participatory research activities across 4 case studies, each addressing a different form of RW (digital nomadism, post-pandemic, high-skilled in hi-tech sectors and enforced remote workers). The 4 case studies encompass overall 7 countries(Italy, Greece, Portugal, Germany, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Ireland): for each country, 1 second-tier city and 1 rural area will be studied. REMAKING generates an impact on socio-spatial transformation processes across second-tier cities and rural areas in terms of improved planning, design and implementation of multi-level policy, promotion of territorial socio-economic resilience and development, and advanced understanding of RW multiple impacts.

INCA project investigates the impact that so-called digital platforms have on European democracies and institutions. Indeed, while promoting economic growth and labour transformations, these platforms pose challenges to policymakers and citizens in relation to people’ participation in decision-making processes, wealth inequalities and erosion of trust into public institutions. In particular, so-called GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft) are becoming more and more infrastructures for opinion-making, labour organization and political debate. Their increasing power in shaping and influencing such issues through lobbying, industrial relations and cultural impact opened up a wide debate on the way to deal with these transformations. While European societies grew up based on liberal democracies and institutions with their capacity to sustain a coordinated market economy, today their role seems to be reduced because of the difficulties to regulate platforms’ corporate power that spread through politics, economy and culture. INCA aims to • define forms to sustain trust in institutions and new models of governance capable to combine the growth of platforms with social inclusion and citizens participation in decision making processes; • stimulate alternative business models and industrial relations so to make GAFAM and platforms accountable to social fairness while preserving their innovation; • to clarify the way GAFAM influence European citizens opinion conditioning democratic processes. Exploring the socio-historical roots behind platforms growth and the erosion of a coordinated market economy, collecting solid data on GAFAM lobbying, industrial relations and opinion-making, and producing participatory actions for the empowerment of democratic processes and citizens’ engagement, INCA contributes to instil greater democratic accountability and inclusion in economic processes prompted by digital transformations.

Tourism and hospitality (T&H) make up over 10% of the European economy and 11.7% of employment. Many of the 13 million employees in the EU are from marginalised groups: women (54%), migrants (16% ) and youth (30%) (ILO, 2022). However, staff turnover and vacancies are high, with 1.2 million job vacancies (11%) in the EU. Many T&H workers are in non-standard forms of work, including platform work. This is detrimental for employees: a decent work deficit, lack of social protection, increased precarity and vulnerability, and increased in-work poverty (European Parliament 2021). Furthermore, algorithmic management impacts negatively on these workers. Generally considered as self-employed, platform workers risk exploitation, forced labour, mistreatment, and sexual abuse. Their precarity is increased due to legal, knowledge and financial obstacles they face in representation and social dialogue structures. FUTOURWORK will investigate how all T&H workers can be included in social dialogue, and understand and tackle the challenges of the associated distributional costs. While acknowledging a variety of social dialogue arrangements and processes, reflecting different historical, economic and sociopolitical backgrounds, this project researches the changes in the new world of work, examples of best practice and identifies common issues that can be tackled at a European level. Using an intersectional gender-sensitive approach FUTOURWORK will use quantitative and qualitative techniques including surveys, mapping, interviews, story -telling and multi-stakeholder learning dialogues. FUTOURWORK will produce an index that can be used by industry to benchmark their workers well-being. Workers stories will be collected and a documentary produced to enhance public understanding. We will develop an observatory to integrate the information produced and as a platform for dialogue for workers, legal and social dialogue organisations and employers.

Across the globe, widespread research continues to reaffirm that women face inferior income opportunities when compared with men. Women are less likely to work for income or to actively seek work; they have fewer opportunities for business expansion or career progression; they are disproportionately more likely to be homemakers yet household labour is not remunerated nor considered to be ‘work’. Women make up around half of the economically active population, however they are underrepresented in various fields, including entrepreneurship. According to World Bank data, in 2022 the global labour force participation rate for women was just over 50% compared to 80% for men. Globally, female labour force participation has not increased greatly over the last three decades and male/female disparities remain stark especially across large swathes of Asia. This is despite the fact that Asia is widely regarded as the engine for global economic growth. International organisations estimate that if women had equal representation in all labour markets, GDP could increase to approximately $136 trillion by 2025. At the same time female entrepreneurship and indicators for gender equality appear to go hand-in-hand, making both key factors for a country's economic development. With a total of 20 partners (10 from Europe and 10 from Asia, including 8 non-academic partners) FEMENA draws on world-class expertise to design an inter-disciplinary, international and inter-sectoral research and training programme that addresses the central questions of how female entrepreneurship is framed, fostered, and promoted across Asia. Four phases of secondments will develop an integrated methodological framework based on Amartya Sen's capability approach to explore how individuals, across a range of contexts and operating in difference sectors, assess their opportunities and abilities rather than applying categories that risk being too context-specific or that ignore path dependency effects.