Book review: The Challenges of Self-Employment in Europe. Status, Social Protection and Collective Representation
| DOI | 10.1177/1388262720983826 |
| Date | 01 March 2021 |
| Published date | 01 March 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
second, ‘in what way should we respond to that value?’ The republican conception of justice,
which is the focus of this book, asserts that freedom from domination and minimising the exercise
of arbitrary power are what ultimately count, and what is required are measures that will promote
and protect non-domination.
I have spent many years thinking about and undertaki ng research on administra tive justice,
i.e. on the justice inherent in administrative decision-making and the resolution of adminis-
trative disputes. However, although my focus has been on procedural issues, I have not
invoked any metric, such as that provided by republican theorists like Philip Pettit and Frank
Lovett or applied, in such a novel way to WTW, by Anja Eleveld, who was clearly the driving
force behind this edited volume.
Among the contributions to this collection, I particularly liked Dermine’s account of the inef-
fectiveness of international human rights instruments in upholding the rights of those subject to
compulsory job-seeking requirements and benefit sanctions in Cha pter 4; Eleveld, Harris and
Sho¨ler’s use of ‘voice’ and ‘exit’ terminology, in which ‘voice’ refers to claimants’ participation
in the determination of work-related requirements and ‘exit’ concerns the recipient’s ability to
challenge work-related requirements in Chapter 6; Bonvain and Perrig’s use of Sen’s ‘capability’
approach in analysisng the possibility of of non-interference and ‘non-domination’ at the design,
implementation and ‘reception’ levels in Chapter 7; Arts’ beautifully crafted empirical study of the
ways in which social assistance recipients are steered towards paid employment in the Netherlands
in Chapter 10; and the discussion, by Simon Birnbaum and Stuart White in Chapters 13 and 14, of
the implications of a republican theory of non-domination for basic income. This book provides a
very important analysis and a very insightful critique of Welfare to Work programmes in Europe
and social security researchers should be indebted to Anja Eleveld and her colleagues for bringing
it to fruition.
ORCID iD
Michael Adler https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3107-4750
Renata Semenza and Franc¸ ois Pichault (eds.), The Challenges of Self-Employment in Europe. Status,
Social Protection and Collective Representation. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019,
xviiþ233 pages, ISBN: 978-1-78811-844-6 (hardcover).
Reviewed by: Sara Bagari ,University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
DOI: 10.1177/1388262720983826
The book under review presents the main results of a two-year European project, entitled Inde-
pendent Workers and Industrial Relations in Europe (I-WIRE). It focuses on the challenges of self-
employment in Europe and considers various aspects relating thereto, such as legal status, social
protection, and collective representation. In doing so, it brings together scholars from different
disciplines, including sociology, human resource management, (labour) economics, industrial
relations, sociology of work, work organization, and social research.
96 European Journal of Social Security 23(1)
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