The Global Union Research Network: A Potential for Incremental Innovation?

One of the current paradoxes for trade unions is that organizing is an essentially local or national affair whilst the most pressing challenge for unions, which is globalization, can only be faced in a global context. This paper analyzes to what extent the Global Union Research Network (GURN) has the potential to be regarded as an incremental innovation for research within the international labour movement. The paper argues that the GURN can become an incremental innovation and there are three stages to this argument. Firstly the GURN in conceptualized within the international trade union movement. Secondly the term 'innovation' is defined and the GURN is presented as a potential, albeit incremental, innovation. The final stage examines GURN sustainability and the barriers to its institutionalization.