Kolben, Kevin --- "Labour regulation, capabilities, and democracy" [2016] ELECD 1536; in Marshall, Shelley; Fenwick, Colin (eds), "Labour Regulation and Development" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 60

Book Title: Labour Regulation and Development

Editor(s): Marshall, Shelley; Fenwick, Colin

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785364891

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Labour regulation, capabilities, and democracy

Author(s): Kolben, Kevin

Number of pages: 22

Abstract/Description:

This chapter argues that labour law and labour market regulation can and should be grounded in a development framework. The conception of development used here draws on the capabilities approach, originally developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, which is oriented towards expanding the capabilities of individuals to do and be that which they wish and have reason to value (Nussbaum, 2011: 18; Sen, 1999). Whereas, for example, a narrowly construed and economistic approach to development and labour regulation might primarily seek to increase employment through increasing labour market flexibility, a wider notion of development is argued for here that grounds labour regulation in freedom, capabilities, and democratic principles. This chapter makes two central claims. First, labour law and labour law reform ought to be oriented towards targeting and developing workers’ capabilities. Work and the workplace, it is argued, are central loci of ‘unfreedoms’ and capability deprivations of workers, and consequently labour regulation can be a key strategic tool to promote freedom by enhancing workers’ capabilities to (a) be and do the things that they have reason to value, and (b) develop key threshold capabilities. Second, the chapter argues that labour regulation can and should promote another, and related, developmental goal – the promotion of democracy and citizenship, both in the workplace and in society. Democratic workplaces, it is argued, are important for reasons that are both intrinsic and instrumental. They are intrinsically important because workers value more democracy in their workplace, and they are instrumentally important because more democratic workplaces can potentially facilitate and improve democratic functioning in society at large.