Introduction. Making work better.

From the premise that better work makes for better societies, the challenge, taken up in the introduction to this special issue of , is to explore what makes work better, or worse, and how it can be improved. As a wide variety of experiments shape our economies and communities for the future, a key challenge is to engage in shared learning about these processes in order to stimulate a dialogue between the aspiration for better work and the conditions likely to hinder or facilitate making work better. It is an invitation to move from narrow conceptions of job quality to a broader lens of how world-of-work actors strategise, innovate and incorporate uncertainty into their search for sustainable solutions for better work.