#DW #13 Newsletter

December 2025

Rising to the challenge!

Let’s get ready for this new year!

Dear signatories of the #DemocratizingWork Manifesto,

Five years ago, more than 6000 researchers from over 750 universities and academic institutions came together with a clear and urgent message: to ensure a democratic and sustainable future for all, work must be democratized, labor decommodified, and our economies remediated. At a time marked by deep political uncertainty and democratic backsliding, we need to come together once again, to leverage new opportunities (read about the Spanish leadership below!), and to rally support for the Indian world-renowned program of Job Guarantee. Please take a minute to mark down your calendar to take part in the forthcoming #DW workshop series, and join us in signing the statement to avoid the repeal of the Job Guarantee program in India. Onward with great action and research in the support of the 3 principles! The people and the planet need it!

DEMOCRATIZE - DECOMMODIFY - DECARBONIZE

Spanish report on Democracy at Work to be released on February 2

Following the mandate entrusted by Vice-President of the Spanish Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, the Expert Committee on Democracy at Work has finalised its report on the implementation of Article 129.2 of the Spanish Constitution (for more information, click here). The report will be officially published on February 2 at 11:00 a.m. in Madrid.

Over the past months, the Committee has worked tirelessly to deliver an ambitious and concrete roadmap to advance workers’ participation at the firm level and ownership rights. This collective effort has been carried forward through intense committee work, with a central contribution from members of the #DemocratizingWork core group, including Julie Battilana, Isabelle Ferreras (Chair of the committee), and Sara Lafuente Hernández.

This report represents a decisive step in translating constitutional principles into actionable public policy, and in anchoring economic democracy at the heart of the Spanish political agenda. It will be released in both Spanish and English as its implications extend far beyond Spain, offering a reference point for ongoing debates on democracy at work across Europe and in the world. We will need your help to spread the word!

Save the date! Join the #DW Global Workshop Series with ASETT to discuss the forthcoming Report

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the next edition of the #DemocratizingWork Global Workshop Series, co-organized with ASETT. This new cycle of online workshops will bring together researchers, policymakers, trade unionists, business leaders, and civil society actors to explore how we can democratize work and the economy in a time of rapid technological and social transformation. Each workshop will foster an open, interactive space for collective learning, exchange, and strategic thinking.

Save the dates:

12 February 2026: Democracy at Work: Introducing the Report of the Spanish Government to Democracy at Work to our Global Community

26 March 2026: AI and Democracy at Work

23 April 2026: Democratizar el trabajo: Perspectivas iberoamericanas

DEMOCRATIZE - DECOMMODIFY - DECARBONIZE

Urgent Action

Please SIGN the Global Call to Defend the Right to Work in India

Led by Pavlina Tcherneva (#DW core group member, Levy Institute & Bard College), we invite you to join prominent economists and experts to sign the open letter in response to the proposed repeal of India’s Rural Employment Guarantee.

The Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA or NREGA) is the largest rights-based public employment program in the world, signed into law in 2005. It faces imminent repeal by the Indian government, which intends to replace it with the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) VB – G RAM G Bill (2025). Through transferring greater and likely unsustainable obligations for administration and payment to the states, the changes are likely to put an end to the program.

Decommodifying work is one of Democratizing Work Manifesto’s core principles, and a federally funded Job Guarantee is a key proposal to operationalize this principle. Democratizing Work’s Indian chapter has been a vital part of our coalition. Hence, we are joining the call for NREGA’s restoration through assured central funding, timely wages, and an unequivocal return to its foundational guarantee of the right to work. Please read the open letter and consider adding your name to the list of experts calling for the preservation of the NREGA law.

DEMOCRATIZE - DECOMMODIFY - DECARBONIZE

New Book on Capitalism and the Politics of Nature

Capitalism runs on a system of relentless commodification. Yet, it persistently fails to value some of the most vital foundations of life, from ecosystems and biodiversity to reproductive labor and the biosphere itself. In Free Gifts, Alyssa Battistoni (#DW core group, Barnard College) reframes a central question of political economy: not why certain forms of nature should not be commodified, but why capitalism has so long relied on treating them as free.

Battistoni traces this logic across four key sites: natural forces in industry, pollution and environmental degradation, reproductive labor in the household, and natural capital in the biosphere. At a time of accelerating ecological breakdown, Free Gifts goes beyond diagnosing capitalism’s environmental failures to recast its core dynamics and challenge how we understand freedom, responsibility, and our capacity to live while truly valuing nature’s gifts.

Watch the Break-Down with Alyssa Battistoni:

The three principles are deeply interconnected. As we know, it’s through pursuing the three principles together that we will move toward a democratic and sustainable future for all, otherwise, we will fail. As we wrap up 2025, let’s take inspiration and hope in what we can achieve together!

This information-sharing tool is meant to disseminate recent research results, debates, and actual progress within and around our global network with Democratizing, Decommodifying, and Decarbonizing Work.

Please share updates from your end. You can share your end of the news about #DemocratizingWork by sending us an email to info@democratizingwork.org.

Onward and upward,

The #DemocratizingWork Core Group,

Julie Battilana, Harvard University, Isabelle Ferreras, FNRS/University of Louvain-Harvard CLJE, Dominique Méda, University of Paris Dauphine PLS,
With Alyssa Battistoni, Barnard College, Julia Cagé, Sciences Po-Paris, Neera Chandhoke, University of Delhi, Lisa Herzog, University of Groningen, Imge Kaya-Sabanci, IE Business School, Madrid, Sara Lafuente Hernandez, University of Brussels-ETUI, Hélène Landemore, Yale University, Flavia Maximo, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Brazil, Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Bard College-Levy Economics Institute