The Future of Labour Movements

`Long awaited and exceedingly welcomed, this collection of nine scholarly essays is the first effort by the Research Committee on Labour Movements of the International Sociological Association. To cut to the quick, most contributors doubt the staying power of movement attributes, thoughnone question the long-term viability of unions per se... Over and over again the book's contributors highlight advantages European capitalists stand to gain from the EEC's integrated market, advantages linked to labor's anticipated loss of elan, militancy, and solidarity....

Sociologists eager to try their hand at this kind of cross-cultural research will find much advice of value.... the volume [has] many strengths... the volume rewards careful reading' - American Journal of Sociology

`This excellent collection of papers is the first output from the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Labour Movements. Unlike so many other collections of conference papers, this volume develops a core of interrelated themes throughout in exploring three key challenges facing unions in the 1990s... Regini is to be applauded for organizing nine provocative contributions around these themes. A strength of this collection is the balance in the analysis between environmental effects and social agency' - Organization

`Regini's careful editing has ensured a very high level of coherence of all contributions. He starts off by reviewing scholarly trends in the study of labour movements since the late 1960s and offering possible scenarios for the development of European labour movements in the 1990s... provide[s] a very good introduction to the development of labour politics, both industrial and political, in the 1980s... Illuminates various facets of the key dilemma of labour in the 1990s: how to adapt to the new socio-economic scenario without abandoning the solidaristic values which have underpinned the social democratic project since its beginnings in the 19th century' - West European Politics

`The publication of this volume represents a major advance in the development of a comparative sociological understanding of trade unions and labour movements in advanced industrial societies. It brings together leading members of the ISA Research Committee on Labour Movements, all of who bring to bear an unrivalled depth of knowledge deriving from many years of research and writing in the field. Added spice comes from the highly critical debates which some of the authors conduct with their own previous writings...The volume is brimful of insights and ideas, and deserves the serious attention of all scholars interested in the field' - European Sociological Review

Marino Regini is Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Trento and President of the research committee on labour movements of the International Sociological Association

Contributors

The Future of Labour Movements

Colin Crouch Trinity College Oxford

Gosta Esping-Andersen European University Institute, Firenze

Richard Hyman University of Warwick

Horst Kern Gottingen University

Luca Lanzalaco Universita Bocconi Milan

Charles F Sabel MIT

Philippe C Schmitter Stanford University

Michael Shalev Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Wolfgang Streeck University of Wisconsin-Madison

J Samuel Valenzuela University of Notre Dame

Jelle Visser University of Amsterdam

Introduction - Marino Regini The Past and Future of Social Studies of Labour Movements The Strength of Union Movements in Advanced Capitalist Democracies - Jelle Visser Social and Organizational Variations Labour Movements and Political Systems - J Samuel Valenzuela Some Variations The Resurgence of Labour Quiescence - Michael Shalev The Emerging Realignment Between Labour Movements and Welfare States - Gosta Esping-Andersen Trade Unions and the Disaggregation of the Working Class - Richard Hyman The Fate of Articulated Industrial Relations Systems - Colin Crouch A Stock-taking After the 'Neo-liberal' Decade Europe's Internal Market, Business Associability and the Labour Movement - Luca Lanzalaco and Philippe C Schmitter Trade Unions and Decentralized Production - Horst Kern and Charles F Sabel A Sketch of Strategic Problems in the German Labour Movement Training and the New Industrial Relations - Wolfgang Streeck A Strategic Role for Unions?