Adrian Hawley

My research interest is in regulating the labour platforms of the gig economy in the context of the EU's social market mnodel 

I semi-retired in 2008 after a four decade career in international sales, marketing and operations management and have devoted the last ten years to part-time consultancy and to academic research in the field of free movement of products and services in the EU Single Market.

From 2015 to 2019, a full-time Ph.D candidate in Management (co-supervised in Politics and International Relations), Royal Holloway, University of London.

Publications:

'Regulating labour platforms, the data deficit', European Journal of Government and Economics 7(1), June 2018, 5-23

'Should Europe regulate labour plaforms in the sharing economy?', book chapter in Handbook of the Sharing Economy, Edward Elgar, published September 2019

Papers given:'Embedding the sharing economy in the EU's single market for services', ECPR Trento 16-18 June 2016

'Integrating ther peer-to-peer for-profit model of the gig economy - towards regulatory uniformity or legitimate diversity', 24th Confererence of Europeanists, Glasgow 12-14 July 2017

'Replacing the HR function in labour market intermediaries in the gig economy, EGOS Tallinn 5-7 July 2018

My thesis:

Title                      'The compatibilty of offline labour platforms of the gig economy with Europe's social market model? Addressing policy gaps in a quasi-federal bloc'.

Abstract             The contribution of my work is to the theoretical implications and practical consequences for management and the EU of the social protection of workers on labour platforms of the gig economy. These are situated with reference to historical theories of organisation and management, paradigms of political economy and cultural response to change, and the EU’s competence in this field.

                The research covers the period from November 2014 to February 2018. I used a critically justified qualitative methodology of documentary data collection and analysis, from institutional, academic, industrial and media sources. From the evidence, I observe a state of anomie (lack of rules) in which labour platforms are not currently compatible with the EU’s social market model. I turn to Durkheim’s theory of Anomie and the Division of Labour for some particularly relevant explanatory power.

                There are consequences for the management of firms (as business enterprises) who organise work in this new way and for the future of ‘social Europe’ and further integration, or, alternatively ‘differentiated integration’. I calibrate shifting positions by gig firms and the EU and some emerging solutions among member states against Durkheim’s analysis which raises questions for further research.