As stated in our previous editorial (Beauregard et al, 2018) we aim to capitalise on the interdisciplinary expertise of our team and draw attention of the WES readership to some of the thematic issues through our short editorials. In our first editorial we debated the issues of gender at work. This thematic issue is comprised of a variety of fascinating articles that are concerned with issues around good and bad jobs, job quality and dirty work, hence this editorial aims to offer some contextual background to the topic and tease out the main themes and contributions that the articles in the issue make to the current scholarship. The issue of job quality has always been one of the main concerns for sociologists of work. The reasons for this are multiple: bad jobs come at a cost for both individuals and societies as they can 'can undermine health and well-being, generate in-work poverty and exacerbate child poverty, create and perpetuate gender inequalities in the labour market and beyond and constrain job and social mobility' (Carre et al, 2012: 1). As the last decade has been marked by economic downturn, austerity policies (Paraschi and Georgopoulos, 2018), and the growth of precarious work (Standing, 2011) and the 'gig economy' (Kallberg and Dunn, 2016; Wood et al, 2019), the focus on good or 'decent' jobs appears an even more pertinent endeavour. In fact, this is also recognised through policy: 'the quest for decent work for all men and women, for productive, high-quality employment and for inclusive labour markets is encompassed' in the International Labour Organisation's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (ILO, 2018). European Commission and World Bank Group have also issued a joint statement about the 'Futures of Work' suggesting that they would be working towards achieving this Sustainable Development Goals through collaborating on three focus areas: boosting skills, enhancing the systems of social protection of work and working to create more and better jobs (European Commission, 2019). What constitutes 'good' or 'decent' jobs is debated both amongst both policy-maker and academics. Findlay et al (2013: 441) have argued that job quality is a multidimensional phenomenon and that 'multiple factors and forces operating at multiple levels influence job quality'. The latter, predictably, makes it more difficult to agree on how to measure and assess job quality: ILO for instance has eleven indicators of what makes work 'decent' including 'employment opportunities, adequate earnings, decent hours, stability and security of work, arrangements to combine work and family life, fair treatment in employment, a safe working environment, social protections, social dialogue and workplace relations, and characteristics of the economic and social context of work (Kallerberg, 2016: 112; see also Osterman and Shulman, 2011), but there are a variety of other 'decent work' indexes each measuring a differing number of variables (see European Parliament 2009). Commented [MA1]: Thinking add smth around uk context? Future res...