Employment relations in a changing society : assessing the post-Fordist paradigm / edited by Luis Enrique Alonso and Miguel Martínez Lucio.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Alonso Benito, L. E. (Luis Enrique)

Martinez-Lucio, Miguel, 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labor market.

Labor policy.

Industrial relations.

Industrial sociology.

Industrial organization--Social aspects.

Industrial organization.

Organizational change.

Physical Description:

xiii, 232 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Summary:

Employment Relations in a Changing Society evaluates three decades of change in employment and social regulation, questioning the paradigm of Post-Fordism as a stable development within contemporary capitalism. Bringing together leading commentators in the United Kingdom and Spain, it critiques the assumption that there is a new stable, decentralized regime of employment that is post-bureaucratic and flexible. It focuses on three key areas: the extent to which labour markets and organizational forms have changed; the role of the language and practice of the state as a labour market player and employer in influencing such developments; and the changes in terms of working relationships given the context of changing gender, family structures and forms of consumption; the re-shaping both politically and institutionally of labour collectivism. The book argues that the current state of play is unstable and fundamentally fraught with conflict and tension. The political landscape may be changing but the underlying tensions within the new rhetoric and practices of flexibility are as intense as ever. What is more, the book points to ironic developments in the manner in which bureaucracy re-asserts itself.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Employment Relations in a Changing Society / Miguel Martinez Lucio 3

2 Fordism and the Genesis of the Post-Fordist Society: Assessing the Post-Fordist Paradigm / Luis Enrique Alonso 18

Part II The Labour Market

3 Flexible Enterprises: An Analysis of their Institutional Standing / Jose Manuel Lasierra 35

4 The Degradation of Employment in Spain: From the Salaried Employment Norm to the Entrepeneurial Employment Norm / Carlos Prieto 52

5 The Myth of Decentralization and the New Labour Market / Robert MacKenzie, Chris Forde 69

Part III The State

6 Are We Moving Towards a Post-Fordist State? Full Employment of the European Workforce / Daniel Albarracin 89

7 Employability and the Flexible Economy: Some Considerations of the Politics and Contradictions of the European Employment Strategy / Ian Greenwood, Mark Stuart 104

8 Post-Fordism and Organizational Change in State Administration / Ian Kirkpatrick 120

Part IV Labour and Society

9 Feminization and Inequality in the New Regime of Work: From Exclusion by Design to Exclusion by Default / Jean Gardiner, Miguel Martinez Lucio 139

10 A Post-Fordist Consumption Norm? Social Fragmentation, Individualization and New Inequalities / Luis Enrique Alonso 153

11 The Feminization of Work, Changes in Family Structure and the Transformation of the Welfare State in the Post-Fordist Environment / Gerardo Meil Landwerlin 169

12 Individualism and Collectivism in the Sociology of the Collective Worker / Paul Stewart 182

13 Trade Unionism and the Realities of Change: Reframing the Language of Change / Miguel Martinez Lucio 200

14 Flexible Rigidities: A Model for Social Europe? / Richard Hyman 215.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0333970373

OCLC:

58545959

Publisher Number:

9780333970379