The overarching purpose of IR-CREA is to analyse traditional and innovative forms of industrial relations among creative workers. In particular, it would address the following question:

• What are the strategies of social partners at national and territorial level to overcome the challenges related to high uncertainty in the creative workers labour market?
• What is the role of collective bargaining (both national and sub-national levels) and social dialogue in regulating creative industries?
• Do special institutions, such as bilateral bodies between unions and employers associations, provide collective goods and services for these workers?
• What strategies do trade unions and employers’ representatives adopt in order to include creative workers in traditional representation schemes?What do they do at national level and what at local level?
• How can social partners increase the inclusion of creative workers in industrial relation processes?
• To what extent are creative workers experimenting new ways of representing their interests?

Main goals 

The first is to provide a general overview on industrial relations in creative industries across Europe. 

Second, IR-CREA would investigate industrial relations practices in different countries that have heterogeneous traditions in industrial relations and social dialogue. In both cases, the action will improve the knowledge in the field of industrial relations, especially on the social partners’ interest representation rationale, on their strategies and, more in general, on innovative practices aiming at including vulnerable workers in industrial relation arena, both from unions and employers’ representatives. New knowledge will be also valuable for governments and sector’s stakeholders at local, national and European level, as well as for the Directorate-General in order to prepare the next reports on industrial relations in Europe. Very briefly, IR-CREA intends to develop new interpretative frameworks useful to grasp the evolution of industrial relations in the knowledge economy.

The third goal of IR-CREA is the ambitious and challenging purpose of a disseminating activity with a very high-impact on the social partners practices. In particular, a main target of the project is a non-academic audience at national and international level. IR-CREA also wishes: to promote a process of institutional learning across EU countries, to spread innovative solutions in the industrial relations field, and to increase the quality of employment in creative sectors, through the action of social partners at national and EU level.