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Real Utopias for a Social Europe: Working Time Reduction and the Four-Day Week

Real Utopias for a Social Europe is a series of technical debate-type workshops on bold and innovative social policy proposals. The second two-day workshop on Working Time Reduction and the Four-Day Week will take place online on 27-28 October.

Real Utopias for a Social Europe consists of a series of technical debate-type workshops on various bold and innovative social policy proposals. Leading academic experts and policy-makers assess and discuss the feasibility, distributional impact, costs, and scalability of these policy proposals through evidence-based on various designs such as pilots, field experiments, microsimulation exercises, and real policy experiences. The objective is to bolster a hivemind that can provide scientifically rigorous yet creative tools to tackle growing socioeconomic inequalities and the green transition in the context of major social transformations ahead.

The second workshop in the series addresses Working Time Reduction and the Four-Day Week, brought together selected experts on these policies to discuss on the pros and cons of these measures, their potential social, environmental and economic impacts from a policy-oriented and evidence-based point of view. This workshop closely fits the European Commission’s priority of dealing with an economy that works for people and a European Green Deal. More information here on the first workshop on Universal Benefits.

Below you can watch the recorded sessions and check the programme of the workshop:

Recorded Sessions

  • EU policy | employment policy | economic growth | gender equality | environmental impact | social inequality | evaluation method
  • Thursday 27 October 2022, 14:00 - Friday 28 October 2022, 12:30 (CEST)
  • Online only
  • Live streaming available

Files

  • 20 MARCH 2023
Summary Report
English
(1.1 MB - PDF)
Download

Programme

  1. 27 Oct 2022, 14:00 - 17:30 (CEST)
    Day 1 - Impacts of Worktime Reduction
  2. 14:00 - 14:05 (CEST)
    Welcome address
  3. 14:05 - 15:45 (CEST)
    Session I: Employment, productivity, gender, and wellbeing

    Chair: Davide Villani (Joint Research Centre, European Commission)

    Speakers:

    • Paloma Villanueva (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

    • Till Van Treeck (Universität Duisburg-Essen)

    • Ozlem Onaran (University of Greenwich)

    • Anthony Lepinteur (University of Luxemburg)

    • Maria Rosaria Gualano (UniCamillus-Saint Camillus International University of Health Sciences, Rome)

  4. 15:45 - 16:00 (CEST)
    Break
  5. 16:00 - 16:30 (CEST)
    Keynote speech: Juliet Schor (Boston College)
  6. 16:30 - 17:30 (CEST)
    Session II: Environment

    Chair: Cristina Monge (Universidad de Zaragoza, Journalist)

    Speakers:

    • Andrew Watt (Macroeconomic Policy Institute)

    • Héctor Tejero (Más País, MP at Madrid’s Parliament, Bioinformatician)

    • Simone D’Alessandro (Università di Pisa)

    • Edlira Narazani (Joint Research Centre, European Commission)

  7. 28 Oct 2022, 10:00 - 12:30 (CEST)
    Day 2 - Understanding and Assessing 4-day Week Experiences
  8. 10:00 - 10:30 (CEST)
    Keynote speech: Lina Gálvez (MEP)
  9. 10:30 - 12:30 (CEST)
    Session I: The design and evaluation of 4-day week pilots and experiences

    Chair: Lucía Alonso (Red2Red)

    Speakers:

    • Joan Sanchís (Generalitat Valenciana, Universitat de València)

    • Pedro Gomes (Birkbeck, University of London)

    • A.F. Mullens (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

    • Pierre Larrouturou (MEP)

    Discussant: Hugo Cuello (Innovation Growth Lab, Nesta)

  11. 12:30 - 12:40 (CEST)
    Closing remarks and presentation of Workshop 3: Leire Salazar (Joint Research Centre, European Commission)

Practical information

When
Thursday 27 October 2022, 14:00 - Friday 28 October 2022, 12:30 (CEST)
Where
Online only
Languages
English
Organisers
Joint Research Centre
Social media links

Report

The Real Utopias for a Social Europe series is organized by the DIGCLASS team within the JRC-Centre for Advanced Studies. DIGCLASS is a project born out of increasing concern in Europe about the implications of the digital revolution for social inequalities and democratic processes. The project aims to understand better how digital technologies alter the mechanisms that generate inequalities in the distribution of resources and life chances, which is crucial for social policies to respond to the challenges of the digital revolution.

Visit the DIGCLASS website to learn more about the project!

Drop us a line at JRC-CAS-DIGCLASSatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (JRC-CAS-DIGCLASS[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu) if you want to stay tuned with our seminar series, publications, and other activities.

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