A Renewed Critical Perspective on Social Law: Disentangling Its Ambivalent Relationship With Productivism

The ecological movement questions the productivist model our societies inherited from the Industrial Revolution. Productivism is based on the belief that the continuous increase in production is possible and desirable. Political ecology and scientists denounce the adverse effects of productivism, in that it produces waste, exhausts natural resources and results in global warming. In this context, this article explores the relationship between social law and productivism. Critical legal scholars classically highlight the function of social law in redistributing the value generated by labour under capitalism. Our aim is to shift the focus and examine the function of social law prior to that, in the definition of what value is, more specifically what kind of labour is considered as creating value and is therefore to be supported. Through the characterization of the forms of work promoted in social law, the article demonstrates the ambivalence of this branch of law towards productivism. It is strongly rooted in the productivist model since it has been constructed around the concept of labour exchanged in the market, considered as the best way to ensure continual growth. However, at the same time, it relativizes productivism by promoting, in some places, economically non-productive but nonetheless (eco) socially useful activities. Productivism, Foundations of Social Law, Ecosocial Welfare, Sustainable Welfare, Right to Work, Decommodification, Post-productivism, Value of Work, Critical Labour Law, Critical Legal Studies