Center for
Interdisciplinary Labour Law Studies

Work of all kinds shapes social coexistence and serves as a basis for the creation of social value. Law places a key role in configuring work, and work is embedded in the law. Transformations and the dissolution of boundaries in work relationships over the past decades have brought about manifold shifts and reconstitutions of how societies organize work. To gain an understanding of how these shifts unfold and how work is being reconfigured, to map these changes and to develop different modes of regulation requires an interdisciplinary vantage point on the role that (labour) law can and does play, while at the same time observing changes that do or need to take place.

The focus of the Centre will lie on gainful labour and paid work while being attentive to how paid work is systematically shaped by and shapes (unpaid) care work. Methodologically the Center will emphasize empirical research of practices of law, drawing upon the sociology of law and socio-legal studies. Therefore, our work is characterized by a reflexive approach to law: the Center is committed to interdisciplinary research seeking to understand the particular dynamics of law and the legal system but also to critically reflect law in its dual nature as a system of hegemonial power as well as a resource for countervailing power and emancipation. 

C*LLaS organizes, coordinates and initiates projects within the realm of interdisciplinary labour law research where approaches from law, organisational, social, cultural and gender studies are brought together. The Center builds upon a focus in research  that has been existing at Viadrina since 2009; it institutionalizes a research network, and is committed to foster the development of interdisciplinary labour law research on an international level. >>> Read full text