Work and Labour Markets

Towards a democratic division of labour? starts from the challenge of balancing values of 'equality' and 'freedom' in all sections of modern societies, introducing the Combination Model as a scientific tool for studying the division of professional and family work and for elaborating adequate policy perspectives.

Throughout the European Union, rates of unemployment among young people tend to be higher than among the general population and there is a serious risk of marginalisation and exclusion. This important new book presents the findings of the first comparative study of unemployed youth in Europe using a large and original data set.

This book offers Ireland’s introduction of a welfare-to-work market as a case study that speaks to wider international debates in social and public policy about the role of market governance in intensifying the turn towards more regulatory and conditional welfare models on the ground.

How has the Brexit vote affected EU migrants in the UK? This book presents a female Polish perspective, using findings from research carried out with economic migrants from Poland interviewed before and after the Brexit vote.

"Beyond the workfare state" explores equality, discrimination and human rights in relation to employability and 'welfare-to-work' policies bringing together a wide and distinctive range of illustrative studies that gives voice to a variety of potentially marginalised groups.

Based upon cross-national case studies of public and private sector workplaces, "Work, families and organisations in transition" illustrates how workplace practices and policies impact on employees' experiences of "work-life balance" in contemporary shifting contexts.

The important study investigates changes in women's transitions in and out of paid work, comparing Italy and Great Britain across four subsequent birth cohorts from the time they leave full-time education, up to their 40s.

Contributing to debates on the unpredictability of middle-class attitudes and their changing relations with the welfare states in Europe, this book identifies key trends in the literature and considers the impact of recent welfare reforms on the middle class.

The use of fiscal welfare has been growing over the past decades in European welfare states. This book sheds light on the use and effects of fiscal welfare in welfare and labour market reforms in both countries and examines the introduction of a 50% tax deduction on domiciliary care and household services.

Drawing on a comparative study with individuals who migrated to Singapore and Tokyo in 2010s, this book demonstrates how migration to Asian business centres has become an alternative to a middle-class life in Europe and how the perceived insecurities of life in the crisis-ridden EU result in these migrants’ prolonged stay in Asia.

This book traces the transition to the graduate labour market of a cohort of middle-class and working-class young people. Using personal stories and voices, it provides fascinating insights into their experience of graduate employment and how their life-course transitions are shaped by their social backgrounds and education.

Based on field material collected from 2020 to 2022 in Sweden, this book tells a composite story of the everyday work of public sector workers that maintained the welfare infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic.