The theme of this Working Group, work and its transformations, is a problem present in the tradition of the social sciences since their origins. Reflection on work and concern with its configuration, modes of organization, conditions, representation, and regulation are constitutive of social thought and occupy a central place in academic and political debate, demonstrating that political practice (in the broadest sense) in contemporary societies largely revolves around work, with common ground for debate and action. In the Latin American, Caribbean, and European context, the problematization of work and its transformations, while remaining heterogeneous, presents similar debates and approaches across countries and regions. In fact, the current moment of globalization demonstrates how these problems and transformations manifest themselves in similar ways in realities as diverse as those that exist in the aforementioned regions.

Within this framework, this Working Group aims to analyze, review, and problematize the changes and possible futures of work, based on two main premises and proposing three central objectives. The first premise motivating the choice of topic refers to the accelerated transformation that work has undergone in recent decades, becoming one of the main drivers of inequality in the world.

This transformation stems from multiple factors: technological changes, particularly digitization and automation, global production reconfiguration, decentralization and offshoring processes, and the growing trend toward capital concentration. One of the most visible consequences of these processes is the crisis of traditional employment relationships, observed in the rise of informal employment, the problematization of care work as a central element of gender inequality, precariousness in its various forms, the trend toward wage devaluation, with particular attention to the role of ICTs in its implementation (the paradigmatic example being platform economies and the expansion of teleworking), and the ecological crisis. Added to this is the inherent heterogeneity of the Latin American region, where wage levels have varied considerably across its countries throughout the 20th century, with some countries favoring self-employment, family-based work, or community-based work, among others. In this context, the number of people engaged in activities outside the formal employment contract has increased, generating value under appalling working conditions, with high risks to their lives and incomes insufficient for basic needs. Furthermore, a substantial portion of those who remain in formal employment are increasingly affected by various forms of job insecurity. This inequality in income distribution translates into low wages and compensation for the workforce, a problem that extends not only to Latin America and the Caribbean but also to labor systems worldwide.

Furthermore, thinking about work today requires analyzing all of the above together with the renewed "great threat" that, according to some literature, looms over wage labor, prophesying its disappearance; we are obviously referring to widespread automation or robotization and its differential impact according to class and gender.

In this context, the second reason for choosing the scope of action for the new Working Group is the need to address these phenomena within the current political landscape of Latin America and the Caribbean. The political reality reflects the arrival of a new wave of progressive governments that must address this evolving labor landscape, proposing public policies and regulatory reforms that broadly improve the material conditions of existence for popular sectors. This requires an in-depth analysis, not only of the present but also of the future of the work we want to shape. Given this reality, it is essential to analyze, debate, and offer intellectual and political programs developed collectively through dialogue among academia, the labor movement, social organizations, feminist and environmental movements, and public institutions, especially in the current Latin American and Caribbean political context. In this endeavor, the use of comparative methodologies based on European models, particularly the Spanish and Portuguese models, can yield significant results.

Both of these reasons underpin the three main objectives of this new Working Group, which are:

1. To develop a space for situated and collective critical analysis of the changes observed in various countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe (with special emphasis on Spain and Portugal), comprised of the diverse actors involved in the world of work, such as unions and social and grassroots movements. To this end, the creation of a "Labor Observatory" is proposed in collaboration with existing networks. In this sense, the first objective of this Working Group is to foster debate on developments in the field of academic research on labor, approached from a perspective that broadens the focus to include those work activities linked to the changes that societies are undergoing and their consequences, in constant relation to the "traditional" collective subjects of work and to new or expanded labor subjects.

2. To study institutional responses to these problems comparatively among the different countries of the Latin American region and in Europe—particularly Spain and Portugal. Special attention will be paid to existing or developing regulations and policies in order to analyze them critically and generate input that can be debated and contribute to the formulation of public policies in the various countries that make up the Working Group. To this end, the creation of cross-cutting forums for debate and discussion among academia, social movements, institutions, and government bodies is proposed, while also strengthening those already in place.

3. To operate as a point of intersection and coordination for all of CLACSO's Working Groups that address and analyze the world of work. To this end, the coordinators of existing groups, as well as some of their members, have been invited to join this new Working Group, in order to continue the momentum begun at the Labor Forum organized during the CLACSO Conference held in June 2022. The creation of synergies and permanent spaces for collaboration among the various Working Groups will help position the debate on work as a key focus within CLACSO, something essential at this time for the reasons mentioned above. Furthermore, the Working Group aims to adopt a broad perspective and demonstrate how transformations in work follow common patterns, in terms of the degradation of working conditions, in Latin America and Europe.

Revisiting a concept as complex and heterogeneous as work, in the terms outlined above, presents a challenge, especially in a context as heterogeneous as Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. The heterogeneity that shapes the reality of the world of work in Latin America and the Caribbean is expressed in the different dynamics that converge within it, with their correlation, for example, in the levels of precarity/de-wageation of the workforce; in the extent of subsistence community economies and informal employment; in the presence or absence of public investment in training and the integration of new technologies into production; in the inclusion of care work on the public agenda as a basis for gender inequalities; in the integration of the demands of combating climate change into productive structures; in the development and institutionalization of labor's normative and regulatory frameworks; in the relationship with access to technology; and in participation in global value chains.

In the political and institutional sphere, the strength of neoliberal consensus has placed the increasing liberalization of the movement of capital, goods, and services, and the maximization of international trade facilities, at the forefront of political objectives. Simultaneously, the deregulation and sophistication of the financial system have led to greater instability in the global economic system. Finally, the growing importance of supranational institutions in regulating national economies has had implications for state systems of collective bargaining and the influence of unions and collective bargaining, given the shift of decision-making to the international level. In the business sphere, changes have been linked to various phenomena: on the one hand, the dismantling of large, integrated corporate structures and their replacement by network-based models of business organization, which have spread in the form of large global value chains; On the other hand, the search for more flexible production systems capable of adapting quickly to the demands of the market makes non-permanent contractual arrangements more attractive and also promotes greater flexibility in working conditions for employers; thirdly, management models that promote a more individualized relationship with the worker and a more company-centric approach are encouraged, gradually weakening collective bargaining and, in particular, sectoral collective agreements; fourthly, and most notably, digitalization, automation, and the so-called "platform economy" are causing an accelerated change in business practices regarding hiring and workforce management, also generating a discourse that questions the very continuity of salaried work.

In addition to all this, and of fundamental importance, there are other cross-cutting changes such as the gradual questioning of male/female work roles and the various inequalities and gaps present in labor markets between men, women and diverse groups, and the strong controversies based on the significance of care as an explanatory axis, with the feminist movement as the spearhead of the transformations; in parallel, the acceptance of the reality of the ecological crisis, with the entry into play of environmental risks as a parameter in business management and the permanent pressure of the environmental movement, provides arguments for a model that must be transformed.

In summary, all of the above has given rise to various lines of mutation, ranging from what some in the literature call the "expanded concept of work" (De la Garza, 2010) to what others prefer to call "desalarization" (Etzexarreta, 2020). This highlights the new forms of work that extend into the production of goods and services and now even predict a possible "end of work" linked to robotization (García, Montáñez, and Neut, 2018). Simultaneously, we observe the emergence of new proletarianized centers resulting from the relocation of production, typically from North to South. The connection between these centers and the maquiladora industry and free trade zones is particularly serious in Central America in particular and Latin America in general. In this regard, the ILO has estimated that more than 453 million people worldwide, representing 20,6% of global employment, are employed by one of the companies that make up the long production chain of a transnational corporation (ILO, 2016). Within these chains, we find environmental degradation, brutal exploitation, and modern slavery.

Clearly, all these dynamics allow capital to break free from regulatory constraints and union control, generating increasing inequality in the distribution of income generated by labor, which is becoming one of the fundamental factors in the accelerated increase of global inequality (ILO, 2021).

The study of these phenomena, from forced labor to the forms of proletarianization derived from the actions of transnational companies in Latin America, will be one of the lines of work of the new GT that we propose here.

Beyond the reconfiguration and repositioning of the proletarian condition at a global level, it is necessary to analyze the common lines of transformation of labor in the region. The phenomenon popularized as "precarization," which has been expanding since the 1970s and is now combined with direct wage erosion, is common to all countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, but also to the reality of Europe and other core economies.

Other topics still under analysis and central to the work of the new Working Group include: platform economies; teleworking; informality; work in the informal economy; wage trends; the expansion of so-called "green jobs"; automation and robotization; and predictions of the end of work. The Working Group will analyze, across all areas and on an ongoing basis, the various approaches from academia, feminist practice, and trade unionism that have addressed gender differences. One of the fundamental debates that concerns the group is the increasing focus on domestic and care work, relegating the consideration of the labor market(s) to a secondary role.

The Working Group, adopting the title of the CLACSO Journal, conceives itself as a network of threads and networks. In this sense, the words that define the journal, and which could equally characterize the dynamics expected of the Working Group, are: “We are THREADS,” which, like threads in a tapestry, link academic production with the processes of struggle and transformation that seek a more just society for Latin America and the Caribbean. And “we are NETWORKS,” because we promote the convergence of studies on different topics approached from diverse perspectives to maintain an ongoing debate about the numerous threats and complex problems that beset our societies. These THREADS and NETWORKS create the conditions for dialogue among academics, policymakers, and actors in social movements and processes, to build alternative horizons.