The quality of work and the European economic crisis. The theme and the time: an introduction

The paper introduces four articles addressing the issue of quality of work in european economic crisis. The theme of the quality of work and working life has gone through ups and downs, with recurrent references, at times only opportunistic, in the sociological literature. From the overview of the essays we get a heterogeneous and complex picture of the ongoing changes at the European level regarding the quality of work and working life. Major differentiations are found according to the work sectors and the analytical dimensions considered. The crisis has certainly struck occupational levels and produced different effects on work rhythms. The ergonomic and job complexity aspects appear to be most affected by problematic changes, those relating to autonomy and control less so. However, it is wholly evident that the dimension of control and participation in decisional processes are influenced by organizational choices, the fabric of institutional relationships and the presence of players and practices able to favour diffused decision making. The spread of job precariousness seems to affect different countries and work spheres, as does differentiation between labour markets for high and low profile jobs.