Chapter 7: Developments, Possibilities and Connections: Reflecting on the Challenges and Significance of New Forms of Trade Union Representation

The final, reflective chapter focuses on a series of questions based on the cases presented earlier. It focuses on explaining the main causal mechanisms or drivers that have configured changes in specialised worker representatives and the role structural, political, and discrete cultural factors have played. The chapter explains the roles played by more focused forms of trade union representation beyond their formal functions and remits. The chapter asks whether such new forms of representation generate and represent a new form of solidarity. The chapter ends by suggesting that future research must account for the form and content, let alone context, of such forms of representation and their organisational and social potential.