IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v21y2007i3p517-535.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Employment insecurity and social theory: the power of nightmares

Author

Listed:
  • Ralph Fevre

    (Cardiff University, Fevre@cardiff.ac.uk)

Abstract

Data from the countries which social theorists had in mind when they elaborated the idea of a new age of employment insecurity do not support their theories. If the age of insecurity is dawning anywhere, it is in Spain, Mexico, Portugal, Turkey, Finland and Poland. It is not plausible that these examples inspired Beck, Giddens and Sennett. The causes of the different trends revealed by international comparison are more likely to be found in complex, multi-factoral explanations than in an age of insecure employment. The theorists became wedded to their diagnosis because of the problems they encountered in doing theory after the demise of Marxism and the post-modern turn made their critiques insecure. Their need for legitimation made their theorizing vulnerable to co-option in dystopian nightmares that served powerful interests.

Suggested Citation

  • Ralph Fevre, 2007. "Employment insecurity and social theory: the power of nightmares," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 21(3), pages 517-535, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:21:y:2007:i:3:p:517-535
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017007080013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017007080013
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017007080013?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. Booth, Alison L & Francesconi, Marco & Garcia-Serrano, Carlos, 1997. "Job Tenure: Does History Matter?," CEPR Discussion Papers 1531, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Gottschalk, Peter & Moffitt, Robert, 1999. "Changes in Job Instability and Insecurity Using Monthly Survey Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(4), pages 91-126, October.
    3. Stephen Nickell & Patricia Jones & Glenda Quintini, 2002. "A Picture of Job Insecurity Facing British Men," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(476), pages 1-27, January.
    4. Chris Forde & Gary Slater, 2005. "Agency Working in Britain: Character, Consequences and Regulation," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 43(2), pages 249-271, June.
    5. Peter AUER & Sandrine CAZES, 2000. "The resilience of the long-term employment relationship: Evidence from the industrialized countries," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 139(4), pages 379-408, December.
    6. Theo Nichols & Nadir Sugur, 2004. "Global Management, Local Labour," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-50457-8.
    7. Michael Rose, 2005. "Job Satisfaction in Britain: Coping with Complexity," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 43(3), pages 455-467, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bernhardt, Janine & Krause, Alexandra, 2014. "Flexibility, performance and perceptions of job security: a comparison of East and West German employees in standard employment relationships," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 28(2), pages 285-304.
    2. Philip S. Morrison, 2014. "Who Cares about Job Security?," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 17(2), pages 191-210.

    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. José María Arranz, "undated". "La Seguridad Del Empleo En España: Evidencia Con Datos De La Epa (1987-2003)," Working Papers 5-04 Classification-JEL :, Instituto de Estudios Fiscales.
    2. Francis Green, 2003. "The Rise and Decline of Job Insecurity," Studies in Economics 0305, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    3. Jahn, Elke J. & Wagner, Thomas, 2008. "Job Security as an Endogenous Job Characteristic," Working Papers 08-6, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics.
    4. Marcel Erlinghagen, 2006. "Job Stability, Mobility and Labour Market Restructuring. Evidence from German Microdata," management revue. Socio-economic Studies, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 17(4), pages 372-394.
    5. Cho, Joonmo, 2004. "Flexibility, instability and institutional insecurity in Korean labor market," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 315-351, April.
    6. Charles L. Baum, 2022. "Seven jobs in a lifetime? An analysis of employee tenure," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(2), pages 543-567, April.
    7. Joonmo CHO & Jaeho KEUM, 2004. "Job instability in the Korean labour market: Estimating the effects of the 1997 financial crisis," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 143(4), pages 373-392, December.
    8. David Campbell & Alan Carruth & Andrew Dickerson & Francis Green, 2007. "Job insecurity and wages," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(518), pages 544-566, March.
    9. John S. Heywood & W.S. Siebert & Xiangdong Wei, 2011. "Estimating the Use of Agency Workers: Can Family-Friendly Practices Reduce Their Use?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 535-564, July.
    10. D'Addio, Anna Cristina & De Greef, Isabelle & Rosholm, Michael, 2002. "Assessing Unemployment Traps in Belgium Using Panel Data Sample Selection Models," IZA Discussion Papers 669, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Dawson Chris & Veliziotis Michail & Hopkins Benjamin, 2014. "Assimilation of the migrant work ethic," Working Papers 20141407, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    12. Surhan Cam & Serap Palaz, 2023. "Mutual interests management with a purposive approach: Evidence from the Turkish shipyards for an amorphous impact model between (subjective) well‐being and performance," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 40-70, January.
    13. Alicia H. Munnell & Steven A. Sass, 2007. "The Labor Supply of Older Americans," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2007-12, Center for Retirement Research, revised Jun 2007.
    14. Concetta Russo & Marco Terraneo, 2020. "Mental Well-being Among Workers: A Cross-national Analysis of Job Insecurity Impact on the Workforce," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 421-442, November.
    15. Ganserer, Angelika, 2021. "Non-compliance with temporary agency work regulations: Initial evidence from Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-057, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    16. Bergemann, Annette & Mertens, Antje, 2004. "Job Stability Trends, Layoffs, and Transitions to Unemployment: An Empirical Analysis for West Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 1368, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Blanchflower, David G. & Bryson, Alex, 2021. "The Economics of Walking About and Predicting Unemployment," GLO Discussion Paper Series 922, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    18. Andrea Bassanini & Thomas Breda & Eve Caroli & Antoine Rebérioux, 2013. "Working in Family Firms: Paid Less but More Secure? Evidence from French Matched Employer-Employee Data," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(2), pages 433-466, April.
    19. Giulia Faggio & Stephen Nickell, 2005. "Inactivity Among Prime Age Men in the UK," CEP Discussion Papers dp0673, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    20. Georgellis, Yannis & Lange, Thomas, 2009. "Are Union Members Happy Workers after All? Evidence from Eastern and Western European Labor Markets," MPRA Paper 17020, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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:woemps:v:21:y:2007:i:3:p:517-535. 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: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    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.