IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/treure/v19y2013i3p399-413.html

Responses of trade union confederations to the youth employment crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Torsten Geelan

    (PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge)

Abstract

The current economic recession has had a dramatic impact on youth employment across Europe. This article analyses responses by trade union confederations in Denmark and the UK. Looking first at their power capacities (with a specific focus on communicative power and its relevance for young people), the article moves on to analyse how these capacities and the broader political opportunity structure shape the nature and extent of actions in which they engage. The article ends with some reflections on the usefulness of communicative power as a new theoretical and analytical tool.

Suggested Citation

  • Torsten Geelan, 2013. "Responses of trade union confederations to the youth employment crisis," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 19(3), pages 399-413, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:treure:v:19:y:2013:i:3:p:399-413
    DOI: 10.1177/1024258913493702
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1024258913493702
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1024258913493702?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Kitson & Ron Martin & Peter Tyler, 2011. "The geographies of austerity," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 4(3), pages 289-302.
    2. Hyman, Richard, 2001. "Trade union research and cross-national comparison," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 757, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Bryson, Alex & Gomez, Rafael & Willman, Paul, 2010. "Online social networking and trade union membership: what the Facebook phenomenon truly means for labor organizers," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 27771, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Christian Lévesque & Gregor Murray, 2010. "Understanding union power: resources and capabilities for renewing union capacity," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 16(3), pages 333-350, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Panagiotis Panagiotopoulos & Julie Barnett, 2015. "Social Media in Union Communications: An International Study with UNI Global Union Affiliates," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 53(3), pages 508-532, September.
    2. Hrvoje Butković & Jan Czarzasty & Adam Mrozowicki, 2023. "Gains and pitfalls of coalitions: Societal resources as sources of trade union power in Croatia and Poland," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 29(1), pages 43-61, March.
    3. Barth, Erling & Bryson, Alex & Dale-Olsen, Harald, 2025. "Turning non-members into members: Do public subsidies to union membership matter?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    4. David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson, 2022. "Union Membership Peaks in Midlife," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(1), pages 124-151, March.
    5. Christian Dufour & Adelheid Hege, 2013. "Special Issue. Edited by: Gregor Murray, Christian Lévesque, Christian Dufour and Adelheid Hege," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 355-372, July.
    6. Louisa Acciari, 2024. "Caring is resisting: Lessons from domestic workers' mobilizations during COVID‐19 in Latin America," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 319-336, January.
    7. Lorenzo Frangi & Anthony C Masi & Bénédicte Poirier, 2023. "From Unwoven Societal Relationships to a Broad-Based Movement? Union Power in Societal Networks in Quebec (Canada)," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(5), pages 1377-1394, October.
    8. Lorenzo Cini & Bartek Goldmann, 2021. "The Worker Capabilities Approach: Insights from Worker Mobilizations in Italian Logistics and Food Delivery," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(5), pages 948-967, October.
    9. Jane Holgate, 2021. "Trade unions in the community: Building broad spaces of solidarity," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 42(2), pages 226-247, May.
    10. Erika Borrelli, 2026. "Multi-stakeholder governance and precarious labour: Rethinking worker participation in the Equitable Food Initiative," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 43(1), pages 1-18, March.
    11. John Kallas, 2025. "What If You Mobilize Effectively and Still Do Not Win? Reclaiming a Relational Understanding of Strike Outcomes and Employer Power Resources," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 63(2), pages 233-246, June.
    12. Sukti DASGUPTA, 2002. "Attitudes towards trade unions in Bangladesh, Brazil, Hungary and Tanzania," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 141(4), pages 413-440, December.
    13. Jane Holgate, 2018. "The Sydney Alliance: A broad-based community organising potential for trade union transformation?," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 39(2), pages 312-331, May.
    14. Jeremy Waddington, 2014. "Workplace representation, its impact on trade union members and its capacity to compete with management in the European workplace," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 20(4), pages 537-558, November.
    15. Betsy Donald & Mia Gray & Centre for Business Research, 2018. "The Double Crisis: In What Sense A Regional Problem?," Working Papers wp507, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    16. Jørgen Svalund & Heidi Kervinen, 2013. "Trade union power during labour adjustments – comparison of company-level cases," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 19(4), pages 489-505, November.
    17. Alex Bryson & Richard Freeman & Rafael Gomez & Paul Willman, 2017. "The Twin Track Model of Employee Voice: An Anglo-American Perspective on Union Decline and the Rise of Alternative Forms of Voice," DoQSS Working Papers 17-13, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    18. Mathieu Dupuis, 2020. "How do local unions strategize against multinational corporations’ restructuring threats? Some insights from France," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 41(1), pages 55-72, February.
    19. Cetrulo, Armanda & Cirillo, Valeria & Landini, Fabio, 2025. "Labour, unions and R&D in Italian firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 262-281.
    20. Heather Connolly, 2020. "‘We just get a bit set in our ways’: renewing democracy and solidarity in UK trade unions," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 26(2), pages 207-222, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:treure:v:19:y:2013:i:3:p:399-413. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.