In this post I discuss the science behind the title of this newsletter. Transformative work is a concept I developed based on my ethnographic fieldwork and previous research. But what previous research have I drawn on?
In general, work and socioecological transformations are a versatile and multidisciplinary research field. There are debates in environmental philosophy, environmental sociology, sociology of work, organisation studies, work systems, environmental labour studies, sustainability transitions, community economies, ecofeminist political economy, postgrowth, and degrowth (see the list of references).
Many of these approaches have a couple of things in common. First, they try to capture an existing phenomenon, namely how people (should) work in socio‑ecological transformations. Second, work as a notion tends to fall between disciplinary cracks, which at best results in a field of studies focusing on work in socio‑ecological transformations. But there is more to the story, and it relates to how work and socio‑ecological transformations are conceptualised.
Conceptualising work
Lately, I have been digging into understandings of work in ecological economics, and I will use this scholarly field as an example here. Ecological economics studies the economy as embedded within the biosphere. Scholars emphasise that all economic activity depends on ecological limits or planetary boundaries, and they challenge the paradigm of endless growth. Value is understood more broadly than market prices, including wellbeing, care, and the health of ecosystems. At its core, ecological economics asks how societies can thrive within planetary boundaries rather than exceed them.
Work has indeed been studied in ecological economics, but very often the focus has been on employment, meaning waged labour, and on understanding work as a macro‑level phenomenon. As a result, modelling is used to understand the role and impact of work in a more sustainable society. Scholars have explored working‑time reductions, work sharing, job guarantees, and workplace democracy. The argument goes that less waged work means fewer socioecological impacts.
But according to feminist and other critical scholars, work encompasses far more than employment. In my scoping review of how work is discussed in the field of degrowth, published as a book chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Degrowth, I argue that existing research can be roughly grouped into three areas: proposals on waged labour, proposals beyond waged labour, and efforts to rethink the very notion of work.
Work beyond waged labour includes voluntary work, care work, helping neighbours, reproductive labour, and emotional labour. It is constantly present, and societies would not function without this uncompensated and undervalued labour. Yet the nature of this work is very different from industrial relations in contemporary capitalism. It quite literally upholds the system, and thus many focus on mapping or unpacking this terrain. Finally, this can lead to rethinking the notion of work altogether.
In my scoping review, I noticed that many scholars have sought to rethink work over the past decades, and increasingly in relation to socioecological transformations. The Marxist tradition is definitely impactful there. After participating in a reading circle last year on the latest translation of Marx’s Capital Volume 1, I am more equiped to analyse Marx’s role in contemporary thinking about work.
In addition, philosophers interested in work and degrowth have come up with interesting proposals. Many turn away from mass production and greet craftsmanship as an alternative paradigm to industrial understandings of work. The more I think about this, the more fundamental the shift becomes. Imagine if people were able to fix things—or get their things fixed. What would this mean for working life and the global economy? Deep changes.
Future topics
There is so much more to discuss in relation to the science of work in socioecological transformations. Feel free to comment on this limited list, request other topics, and ask questions:
Conceptualising socio‑ecological transformations. The science of transformative work also includes unpacking the notion of transformation, but not to be mixed up with transition. While I prefer the former, this leads to an interesting debate about the power of language.
The role of economic growth. Discussions about work in socioecological transformations differ depending on how the societal need for continuous economic growth is perceived.
Feminist traditions. Feminist scholarship has unpacked the role of gender in understanding work in socioecological transformations, including social reproduction theory. Moreover, the intersections of class, race, and sexuality have been discussed in different feminist traditions.
Decolonial, postcolonial and racialised understandings of work. These perspectives are discussed to some extent in, for example, Indigenous studies, development studies, and human and economic geography.
Newsletter frequency and topics
I hope to return to posting more frequently, but most likely less frequently as I hoped in the start of 2026. While I miss writing more freely, it is difficult to carve out time from the various academic texts on my to do list.
I have a list of topics I want to cover, but I’m also open to exploring themes you find interesting. So I welcome any suggestions on what to write about in relation to transformative work.
References
Baldry, C., & Hyman, J. D. (2022). Sustainable work and the environmental crisis: The link between labour and climate change. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Barca, S. (2019). The Labor(s) of Degrowth. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 30(2), 207–216.
Barca, S. (2020). Forces of Reproduction: Notes for a Counter-Hegemonic Anthropocene (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press; DOI: 10.1017/9781108878371.
Barca, S. (2024). WORKERS OF THE EARTH: Labour, ecology and reproduction in the age of climate change. PLUTO PRESS.
Breen, K., & Deranty, J.-P. (Eds.). (2021). Politics and ethics of contemporary work: Whither work? Routledge.
Docherty, P., Kira, M., & Shani, A. B. (Rami) (Eds.). (2008). Creating Sustainable Work Systems (2nd edn). Taylor and Francis.
Houtbeckers, E. (2025). The spectrum of degrowth work. In A. Nelson & V. Liegey (Eds.), Routledge Handbook on Degrowth. Routledge.
Houtbeckers, E. (2024). Miten tulla toimeen planeetan rajoissa? : Kestävyysmurros transformatiivisen työn tekijöiden näkökulmasta. Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja, 37, 45-63. https://doi.org/10.37456/tvt.131269
Houtbeckers, E., & Taipale, T. (2017). Conceptualizing worker agency for the challenges of the Anthropocene: Examples from recycling work in the Global North. In P. Heikkurinen (Ed.), Sustainability and Peaceful Coexistence for the Anthropocene (pp. 140–161). Routledge.
Miller, E. (2019). Reimagining Livelihoods: Life Beyond Economy, Society, and Environment. University of Minnesota Press.
Moilanen, F., & Alasoini, T. (2023). Workers as actors at the micro-level of sustainability transitions: A systematic literature review. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 46, 100685. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2022.100685
Pettinger, L. (2017). Green collar work: Conceptualizing and exploring an emerging field of work. Sociology Compass, 11(1), e12443. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12443
Räikkönen, T. (2011). The Greening of Work: How Green Is Green Enough? Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 1(1), 117. 10.19154/njwls.v1i1.2338.
Räthzel, N., Stevis, D., & Uzzell, D. (2021). Introduction: Expanding the Boundaries of Environmental Labour Studies. In N. Räthzel, D. Stevis, & D. Uzzell (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Environmental Labour Studies (pp. 1–31). Palgrave Macmillan.
Salleh, A. (2009). Ecological debt: Embodied debt. In A. Salleh (Ed.), Eco-sufficiency & global justice: Women write political ecology (pp. 1–40). Pluto Press.
Seidl, I., & Zahrnt, A. (Eds.). (2021). Post-growth work: Employment and meaningful activities within planetary boundaries. Routledge.
Soper, K. (2020). Post-growth living: For an alternative hedonism. Verso books.
Eeva Houtbeckers 
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