What can businesses contribute to priority neighborhoods?
This was the title of the seventh program recommended by the “Borloo” report, titled *Living Together, Living the Republic to the Fullest*. Set aside in 2018 by the President of the Republic, the document was brought back into the spotlight by the riots that followed Nahel’s death. In light of the economic hardship in working-class neighborhoods, the issue of employment is described as “the mother of all battles.” It is, in fact, “the most glaring manifestation of inequality, the one that blocks the path to the future, that causes people to lose confidence in themselves and in our Republic.”
Ousama Bouiss, University of Montpellier
"Everything hinges on business and jobs."
The result of a collaborative effort involving local governments, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and many other stakeholders, the report highlights the complementary relationship between the fight against poverty, employment, andbusiness. Moreover, it identifies entrepreneurship as the central driving force behind the transformation of the lives of these “6 million residents” who “live in a state of marginalization—or even, at times, of being forgotten by the nation—only to be occasionally brought to mind by isolated news stories.”
Employment contract, social contract
In the conclusion to his book *Why Work?*, Anthony Hussenot, a professor of management science at the University of Côte d’Azur, notes:
“Work is a complex activity” […], “never entirely an alienating activity that is merely a means of earning a living, nor an entirely free and liberating activity.”
He thus identifies five main roles that work plays in our lives.
It plays an economic role through the income we derive from it, which is meant to enable us to support ourselves; a social role in that it “allows individuals to find their place in society”; and a role in shaping our identity, since “the way we speak, behave, and hold beliefs—as well as, to a certain extent, our political and economic views, our cultural tastes, etc., are partly the result of our relationships with our professional environment.” It also plays a legal and political role because work is a “social contract” between the individual, the employer, and the state. It seals the “promise” that, in exchange for the work performed, individuals can live decently, notably by gaining access to the consumer society, being protected by the state, and being able to hope for a better future. Finally, it fulfills a political role through which we participate in the production and reproduction of the systems in which we live.
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Simply stating these roles is enough to understand why work is “the most glaring manifestation of inequality.” When wages are not enough to live on, and when the social status associated with one’s profession is devalued both symbolically and socially, the social contract is undermined because work fails to fulfill its “promise.” With an unemployment rate two to three times higher than the average in working-class neighborhoods, it is even a form of exclusion from this social contract that is at issue.
However, simply having a job is not enough
The solutions proposed in the “Borloo” report focus on two main areas: providing training through apprenticeships, work-study programs, and mentoring; and engaging businesses in job creation initiatives that prioritize residents of working-class neighborhoods.
However necessary and relevant these proposals may be, they are not enough. We must also ensure that work fulfills its role by enabling everyone to earn a satisfactory income that meets their individual aspirations and contributes to the perpetuation of a political system in line with democratic ideals. Since business plays a role in the political and social integration of citizens, the mere fact of “having a job” is not enough. It must also guarantee the possibility of a dignified life.
The preamble to the Constitution of the International Labour Organization states:
“Universal and lasting peace can only be built on the foundation of social justice.”
As labor law expert Alain Supiot points out in The Power of an Idea :
“There are working conditions that entail injustice, misery, and deprivation for a large number of people, which generates such discontent that universal peace and harmony are put at risk […]. This abandonment of [social justice] leads to a staggering rise in inequality, the descent of the working classes into precariousness and social decline, and mass migrations of young people driven by poverty. This, in turn, fuels anger and multifaceted violence and fuels the resurgence of ethnonationalism and xenophobia.”
By placing social justice at the heart of the discussion on the role of businesses and labor, the aim is to counter the harmful effects of neoliberalism, which contributes to the isolation of individuals. In contrast to discourses that promote the ideal of individual success based on the accumulation of material wealth or symbolic dominance, the democratic ideal of social justice calls for solidarity as a necessary condition for freedom and equality.
The tools are available
Therefore, democratizing the workplace does not simply mean promoting dialogue but, more importantly, prioritizing fairness over performance. Similarly, democratizing work does not simply mean “creating jobs.” It also means, in the words of the Declaration of Philadelphia, which in 1944 defined the aims and objectives of the International Labour Organization, promoting “the employment of workers in occupations where they have the satisfaction of giving full play to their skills and knowledge and of contributing best to the common good.”
By approaching the issues of work and business through the lens of the fight against poverty and the affirmation of democratic principles, we are called upon to rethink our ways of thinking. Working-class neighborhoods offer us a valuable mirror reflecting the limitations and dangers of our economic system. It is no longer a matter of putting society at the service of business, but rather of putting business at the service of society. From a normative perspective, this means bringing democratic principles and values to life everywhere, particularly in the places where we spend the most time, such as workplaces.
Moreover, as the “Borloo Report” points out, “we are capable of addressing the bulk of these issues.” Indeed, research on democratic organizational models, reflections on the relationship between the ecological transition and new professions, and proposals for labor law reform are all at our disposal. However, to take advantage of these, experiment with them, and implement these solutions, we must first leave behind “the anxieties of our history, the accumulated, piled-up, sedimented, ineffective, contradictory, scattered, and abandoned systems where the announcement of spectacular figures takes the place of policy.”
Ousama Bouiss, Ph.D. candidate in strategy and organizational theory, University of Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Readthe original article.