Introduction

This book is the fifth editorial initiative of an ongoing research project carried out by the Marco Biagi Foundation (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy), seeking to cast light on the new challenges and trends in the world of work. The present volume specifically focuses on the socio-economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, considering it both as a booster of critical issues and dynamics that were already shaping the labour market, employment relations, economy and wider society, and as an opportunity to relaunch a critical analysis on the future of work. In this regard, the book identifies three main topics directly related to the difficult challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, namely poverty, inequality and vulnerability at work; the relationship between technology and work-related well-being; and the role of institutions in shaping employment policies aimed to foster a human-centred recovery from the pandemic. The original approach of the book consists in bringing together the contributions of experts from different disciplinary backgrounds (labour law, labour economics, organizational studies and human resource management) which allow to offer a multidisciplinary, multi-level analysis of the conditions under which a human-centred pandemic recovery could be realized.