Formal and informal work in Europe. A comparative analysis of their changing relationship and their impact on social integration

The project looks into the changes of work activities that result from the decline of formal work and the rise of informal work in Europe. This process varies with the diversity of institutional and cultural contexts that characterize national societies in Europe. Two goals will be targeted: to understand the changing relationship between formal and informal work in European societies selected such that they cover a maximum of institutional and cultural difference; and to identify the social consequences of such changes in terms of social cohesion in an emerging European society. Such knowledge is a precondition for devising political interventions into the social make-up of Europeanizing labor markets taking into account the growing importance of informal work as a relevant parameter for such policy making.