Entgrenzung von Arbeitsverhältnissen

For about a quarter of a century, social sciences have been a keen observer of the transformations of labor relations within organizations, which can readily subsumed under the term of ‘dissolution of boundaries’. This ongoing decentralization of the organization, spanning from outsourcing over strategic alliances to networks, has been accompanied by the flexibilization and subjectivization of work. What initially occurred in the periphery of large organizations, soon became the “new normal” for the core work force across the economy, for the core relationships of gainful employment. Organizational sciences, essentially belonging the most ardent promoters of the abovementioned developments, came to realize that some of their brainchildren, especially the “boundaryless organization”, might constitute an existential threat to the own discipline. Meanwhile, the dissolution of boundaries of working relations was not only eagerly discussed but also widely advocated in the subdiscipline of human resource management. As a result, key terms and notions of labor law (e.g. ‘firm‘, employee’ or ‘employer’) became blurred and now suffer from impaired relevance and effectiveness with regard to their legal protective functions and autonomy of bargaining. This edited volume aims to inspire and deepen a debate that moves beyond disciplinary boundaries. Some urgency is given, because at the end of the day, nothing else but the constitution of the social market economy is at stake.