Theorising radical conflict. Employment relations in the GIG economy

This paper rethinks conflict by moving beyond functionalism, which conceptualises it as something that must be either excluded or optimised, and structuralism, which marginalises and under-theorises contingency and self-interpretations. Engaging a poststructuralist approach, we present the difference between reformist and radical framings of conflict by examining the neoliberal 'gig economy'. Our analysis also discloses how radical conflict is impeded through four dimensions of what we term 'econormativity': 'radical responsibilisation', 'quantification', 'universality' and 'disembeddedness'.