Orchestrated Experimentalism in the Regulation of Work

This book review of MIT Economists Osterman, Kochan, Locke and Piore’s Working in America: A Blueprint for the New Labor Market considers the inadequacies of current workplace structures and the challenges facing regulators of the new economy. The review explores the implications of Blueprint to law reform, particularly labor and employment laws, but also other fields of law, including welfare, immigration, and taxation. It discusses the problem of the enforcement gap and the prevalence of dominant corporate culture even in situations where legislative reform is made consistent with new workplace realities. Finally, the review evaluates the core structure of the vision advanced in Blueprint ‒ democratic experimentalism in the field of work. Lobel argues that while Blueprint begins its inquiries with the promise of the economy as a social institution, its concrete proposals often do not adequately address the core tensions between economic and social interests.