This timely book introduces a fresh perspective on youth unemployment by analysing it as a global phenomenon. Ross Fergusson and Nicola Yeates argue that only by incorporating analysis of the dynamics of the global economy and global governance can we make convincing, comprehensive sense of these developments. The authors present substantial new evidence spanning a century pointing to the strong relationships between youth unemployment, globalisation, economic crises and consequent harms to young people’s social and economic welfare worldwide. The book notably encompasses data and analysis spanning the Global South as well as the Global North.
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Retiring Women
Work and Post-work Transitions
Philip Taylor, Catherine Earl, Elizabeth Brooke and Christopher McLoughlin
With current policy concerns about shortfalls of labour supply and effects on the social welfare system due to population ageing, there is a need to understand the factors that shape women’s choices about if, when and how to retire. Recent trends indicating the increased workforce participation of women demand new policy responses to the end of careers and retirement transitions to sustain acceptable levels of participation and productivity. This book is innovative in that it will examine constellations of factors that disadvantage or advantage women’s career and retirement trajectories against a backdrop of public policy efforts to extend working lives.
Edited by Jacques Charmes
This Research Handbook on Development and the Informal Economy captures the magnitude of the informal economy for the global labour force. It unravels numerous concepts, definitions and methods of data collection to offer valuable insight into the differences between the informal, non-observed and shadow economies.
Corporatism since the Great Recession
Challenges to Tripartite Relations in Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria
Mikkel Mailand
In the comparative study of Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria, Mikkel Mailand explores the roles of social partners in regulating work and welfare through corporatist arrangements. This insightful book illustrates how the frequency of tripartite agreements has either been stable or has increased since the Great Recession of 2008, in spite of challenges from trade unions’ loss of power and political developments. It will be an invaluable read for academics and students in industrial relations, political economy and other social science disciplines addressing the formulation of work and welfare related policies.
Austerity, Retrenchment and the Welfare State
Truth or Fiction?
Bent Greve
Are we living in an age of permanent austerity? In this insightful book, Bent Greve provides a comprehensive empirical analysis of welfare states since 2000, exploring the ways by which austerity can be measured and quantified. Through detailed comparative analysis between states, this book dissects the implementation of economic retrenchment, its extent and impact in Europe.
Telework in the 21st Century
An Evolutionary Perspective
Edited by Jon C. Messenger
Technological developments have enabled a dramatic expansion and also an evolution of telework, broadly defined as using ICTs to perform work from outside of an employer’s premises. This volume offers a new conceptual framework explaining the evolution of telework over four decades. It reviews national experiences from Argentina, Brazil, India, Japan, the United States, and ten EU countries regarding the development of telework, its various forms and effects. It also analyses large-scale surveys and company case studies regarding the incidence of telework and its effects on working time, work-life balance, occupational health and well-being, and individual and organizational performance.
Edited by Gregor Gall
Providing a thorough overview of the political nature and dynamics of the world of work, labour and employment, this timely Handbook draws together an interdisciplinary range of top contributors to explore the interdependent relationship between politics and labour, work and employment. The Handbook explores the purpose, roles, rights and powers of employers and management, workers and unions, states and governments in the age of globalised neo-liberalism.
Edited by Keith Townsend, Kenneth Cafferkey, Aoife M. McDermott and Tony Dundon
This Elgar Introduction provides an overview of some of the key theories that inform human resource management and employment relations as a field of study.
Dependent Self-Employment
Theory, Practice and Policy
Colin C. Williams and Ioana A. Horodnic
Dependent self-employment is widely perceived as a rapidly growing form of precarious work conducted by marginalised lower-skilled workers subcontracted by large corporations. Unpacking a comprehensive survey of 35 European countries, Colin C. Williams and Ioana Alexandra Horodnic map the lived realities of the distribution and characteristics of dependent self-employment to challenge this broad and erroneous perception.
Precarious Work
The Challenge for Labour Law in Europe
Edited by Jeff Kenner, Izabela Florczak and Marta Otto
This discerning book provides a wide-ranging comparative analysis of the legal and social policy challenges posed by the spread of different forms of precarious work in Europe, with various social models in force and a growing ‘gig economy’ workforce. It not only considers the theoretical foundations of the concept of precarious work, but also offers invaluable insight into the potential methods of addressing this phenomenon through labour regulation and case law at EU and national level.