Law and Social Change (DCS) is a predominantly legal CNRS Mixed Research Unit which seeks to develop interdisciplinary studies. It is the principal research centre of the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the Nantes University and is made up of 64 permanent researchers, 18 associate researchers, 7 post-doctoral researchers and around 100 PhD students. Since its creation in 1982, members of the DCS team have increasingly become involved in international activities, have contributed to many international publications and have been invited to join many international research networks.
Our team analyses the role of case law, litigation and other juridical activity in achieving changes in contemporary society. Law is understood as a comprehensive social phenomenon: it is simultaneously the product of the values and conflicts of society and a major vector for societal change. DCS seeks to express both an internal perspective (research in law) and an external perspective (research about law). Today, juridical activity occurs on many spatial levels, from the local to the global, and the DCS team has developed studies relating to the local, European and international levels.
DCS has participated to different research projects in recent years, among which: PROFAM, and COVICARE. PROFAM (2018-2022) was funded by the French National Agency and analysed the transformations of home care work for the frail elderly, to explore the frontiers between paid and unpaid work in France. In this project, the French national employment regime for home care workers, the discretionary power of street-level bureaucrats implementing home care policies, and new emerging forms of home care work were analysed. In COVICARE (2021-2024), the role of employers’ organizations and unions in regulating home-based work during the Covid-19 pandemic is analysed in five countries (France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Belgium). DCS analyses the interrelations between law, public policies and social changes, especially in the domain of work and welfare, as the participation to the RECWOWE (Reconciling Work and Welfare – FP6) European project had shown. These projects (and others) have built the team’s expertise in analysing the transformations of home care work in France, and have raised the question of whether and how domestic service platforms – which include home care – transform home care employment, working conditions, and organization in France and if these platforms are different from those existing in other countries.
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Funded by DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion - EMPL.A – Employment
and Social Governance “Improving expertise in the field of industrial relations
– SOCPL-2022-IND-REL-01"