The activities of the institute are structured into five research areas:

1) European Policies

2) International Migration

3) Industrial Relations

4) Local Development

5) Labour and Welfare State

The research area European Policies deals with labour policies and industrial relations at European and international level. The results achieved so far, concerning the social dimension of the integration process, regard:

- the framework of socio-economic regulation and labour law in Europe;
- the setting up of European Works Councils;
- the involvement of employees in companies under the European Company Statute;
- the standards of national experiences of worker partecipation and labour policies.

Furthermore, the activities of the research area deal with the impact of globalisation, restructuring and reorganisation processes on work as well as with the comparison between the regional and national situation on the one hand and European and international experiences on the other hand. In particular the areas' activities focus on the following topics:

- Europeanisation of industrial relations,
- European and international networks,
- Information about European projects,
- Interregional cooperation projects,
- Research on advanced experiences,
- Exchange of international experiences.

IRES ER has been interested in processes of international migration for a long time as there were structural processes with a significant impact on socio-economic transformations at national and regional level. The area International Migration wants to act as a permanent observatory on migration processes, particularly in relation to the labour market, the welfare system and representation.

In our view, migration processes cannot be observed as an independent phenomenon, but they need to be studied in relation to other key subjects, such as the globalisation of the labour markets, the destabilisation and uncertainty of working careers and the fragmentation and individualisation of labour and social rights.
Our objective is to contribute to an informed discussion - both within and outside the trade union - on migration processes, providing some useful tools for the comprehension of the complexity characterising this phenomenon as well as the results of transformations.

The area Industrial Relations examines the decentralised collective bargaining at company and local level, adopting an approach in line with the industrial relations theory: the analysis includes all the relationships developed among social actors at the different negotiation levels.
Besides dealing with traditional issues of negotiation processes (working hours, wages etc.), the area puts a great emphasis on the quality of the relationship between worker representatives and management, but also between worker representatives and workers as well as the management and workers. There is a twofold method of investigating industrial relations: a quantitative method through a database including all decentralised collective agreements and a qualitative method aimed at understanding the new dynamics of industrial relations.

A specific focus is put on the question of how technological and organisational changes have an impact on industrial relations and, more in detail, on worker participation. The quality of decentralised collective bargaining and industrial relations is strictly correlated to the innovativeness of companies; both innovation processes and collective bargaining play a crucial role in managing the workforce, increasing the quality of professional profiles and determining the competitive strategy of the regional economic and industrial system.

Territories and localities are increasingly considered as key actors in social, cultural and economic processes, both by public administrations and social sciences. The research area Local Development follows the theoretical debate and analyses the consequences of this new attention for local features form two different perspectives:

- Territories and policies analyse public documents, in particular those related to spatial planning focussing on their implications for social conditions, especially of poorer and weaker communities;

- Working places and work in places study the development of specific local contexts, focussing on working conditions, planning capacities of public and private actors and on the relations between those localities and the regional, national and European level.

As territories are not stable, but constantly in change, the institute considers these two perspectives as interrelated.

From the beginning, IRES ER has investigated and analysed labour and welfare topics. Today the area Welfare and Labour focuses on the deep changes affecting the world of work and the model of the current welfare system, dealing with the regional level within a framework in which the local dimension is gaining importance for both institutions and the production of public policies.

The local dimension is becoming a strategic dimension of development capable of promoting a concept of citizenship based on social rights. Social rights have traditionally been correlated to the development of the welfare state, but at the same time they represent a possible ground of conflicts with regard to the redefinition of the mapping of public regulation.

The objective is to understand and analyse the emerging dimensions of work and labour and the critical aspects of the current situation.
These include:

- standard and atypical forms of work widespread at the national and regional level and directed especially to young people, women and migrants;

- processes of change in work and labour;

- vulnerability, social insecurity, inequality and social injustice that is growing even in those areas, which traditionally were not considered to be at risk;

- social citizenship themes.

In the period 2010-12 the institute’s research activities will be focused, among other things, on the following thematic areas:

- crisis and industrial relations, including sectoral and company-level restructuring processes,

- work organisation, lifelong learning and worker participation,

- Europeanisation of industrial relations (i.e the role of EWCs, employee involvement in companies under the European Company Statute, transnational negotiations about company-level agreements),

- migration and trade unions;

- local and regional welfare policies,

- working conditions, including health and safety,

- observatories on local labour markets and economies.

IRES ER publishes the four-monthly review “Emilia-Romagna – Europa” (ERE). The review aims at presenting research results in a comparative view as well as monitoring developments in the fields of labour market research, industrial relations and social policies in EU Member States and at EU level.

The newsletter of IRES Emilia-Romagna called 'IRES ER News' is published five times a year and provides a concise update on the institute’s latest activities.

The results of research projects are published in form of working papers called “IRES materiali”. These working papers are published irregularly.

The book publications of IRES Emilia-Romagna appear in the catalogues of various publishing houses.

Further information on the institute’s publications including also essays and articles are available here.

IRES Emilia-Romagna participates regularly in the activities of SEEurope, the research network on worker participation in the European Company.

IRES Emilia-Romagna is also a member of the international network “Regional and Local Development of Work and Labour” (RLDWL) and the European network on “Employee-driven innovation” (EDI).