This paper examines the right to (decent) work including its social security objective and its universality from the perspective of Human Rights politics.

The political function of the discourse specifically on the right to work and the Decent Work Agenda is least understood and rather dominated by labour lawyers and economists alike. What derives from this core problem is the question how we can actually understand the political function of the employment and social security discourse, as well as its implications for global social change.

The preliminary conclusion based on Mannheim’s concept of utopia and ideology inter alia shows that global discourse does not contribute to universal political action and as a result to global social change.