Alysia Blackham – författare

Age is a critical issue for labour market policy. Both younger and older workers experience significant challenges at work. Despite the introduction of age discrimination laws, ageism remains prevalent.Reforming Age Discrimination Law offers a roadmap for the future development of age discrimination law in common law countries, to better address workplace ageism. Drawing on theoretical, doctrinal, and empirical legal scholarship, and comparative perspectives from the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, the book provides a socio-legal critique of existing age discrimination laws and their enforcement and proposes concrete suggestions for legal reform and change. Building on legal and interdisciplinary insights, it examines the challenges and limitations of existing legal frameworks and the individual enforcement model for addressing age discrimination in employment. It also maps the stages of claiming, negotiation, or alternative dispute resolution, and hearing and judgment, using mixed-method case studies of the enforcement of age discrimination law in the United Kingdom and Australia.This volume puts forward a four-fold model of reform which aims to improve the individual enforcement model, strengthen positive equality duties, bolster the roles of statutory equality agencies, and enhance collective enforcement. It goes on to critically consider how these options might address the limits of existing laws, and the practical measures necessary to ensure their success and to move beyond the individual enforcement of age discrimination law.

The UK population is ageing rapidly. While age discrimination laws are seen as having broad potential to address the ‘ageing challenge’ and achieve instrumental and intrinsic objectives in the context of employment, it is unclear what impact they are having in practice. This monograph addresses two overarching research questions in the employment field: How are UK age discrimination laws operating in practice? How (if at all) could UK age discrimination laws be improved? A reflexive law theoretical standpoint is employed to investigate these issues, applying a mixed methods research design that engages qualitative, quantitative, doctrinal and comparative elements. This book demonstrates the substantial limitations of the Equality Act 2010 (UK) for achieving instrumental and intrinsic objectives. Drawing on qualitative expert interviews, statistical analysis and organisational case studies, it illustrates the failure of age discrimination laws to achieve attitudinal change in the UK, and reveals the limited prevalence of proactive measures to support older workers. Integrating doctrinal analysis, comparative analysis of Finnish law, and the Delphi method, it proposes targeted legal and policy changes to address demographic change, and offers an agenda for reform that may increase the impact of age discrimination laws, and enable them to respond effectively to demographic ageing.Runner up of the 2017 SLS Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship. The author was also awarded the 2020 ISA-RCSL Adam Podgórecki Junior Prize.

This edited collection draws together papers delivered at a symposium on New Frontiers in Empirical Labour Law Research held at the University of Cambridge in April 2014. It contains contributions from established and emerging experts across a range of disciplines (including employment relations, industrial psychology, sociology, economics and political science) to consider four broad themes: the case for empiricism in labour law; the potential for mixed methods; methodological possibilities and insights from other disciplines; and practical challenges and words of caution for those conducting empirical research.This collection seeks to cultivate confidence and competence in empirical methods among both established and young labour law scholars, through an intergenerational and interdisciplinary ‘lessons learned’ dialogue. It contributes to the broader debate regarding empirical research methods in labour law, and casts light on how empirical research can be conducted in highly contested fields to enhance labour law policy-making. This collection aims to inspire labour lawyers to embark upon new forms of empirical research, both to enrich their existing research projects, and to ask new research questions. It offers the first stage of a collaborative and interdisciplinary dialogue on empirical labour law research, to emphasise the importance of collaboration and intergenerational mentoring in building empirical capacity.

This collection brings together perspectives from industrial relations, political economy, political theory, labour history, sociology, gender studies and regulatory theory to build a more inclusive theory of labour law. That is, a theory of labour law that is more inclusive of non-traditional workers (including those in atypical work, or from non-traditional backgrounds); more inclusive of a variety of collective approaches to work regulation that foster solidarity between workers; and more inclusive of interdisciplinary and complex explanations of labour law and its regulatory spaces. The individual chapters speak to this theme of inclusivity in different ways and offer different suggestions for how it might be achieved. They break down the barriers between legal research and other fields, to promote fruitful and integrative conversations across disciplines. In the spirit of inclusivity and intergenerational dialogue, the book blends contributions from early career and emerging scholars with those from leading scholars in the field, featuring critical commentary from senior labour law figures alongside theoretically and empirically informed work.

The UK population is ageing rapidly. While age discrimination laws are seen as having broad potential to address the ‘ageing challenge’ and achieve instrumental and intrinsic objectives in the context of employment, it is unclear what impact they are having in practice. This monograph addresses two overarching research questions in the employment field: How are UK age discrimination laws operating in practice? How (if at all) could UK age discrimination laws be improved? A reflexive law theoretical standpoint is employed to investigate these issues, applying a mixed methods research design that engages qualitative, quantitative, doctrinal and comparative elements. This book demonstrates the substantial limitations of the Equality Act 2010 (UK) for achieving instrumental and intrinsic objectives. Drawing on qualitative expert interviews, statistical analysis and organisational case studies, it illustrates the failure of age discrimination laws to achieve attitudinal change in the UK, and reveals the limited prevalence of proactive measures to support older workers. Integrating doctrinal analysis, comparative analysis of Finnish law, and the Delphi method, it proposes targeted legal and policy changes to address demographic change, and offers an agenda for reform that may increase the impact of age discrimination laws, and enable them to respond effectively to demographic ageing.Runner up of the 2017 SLS Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship. The author was also awarded the 2020 ISA-RCSL Adam Podgórecki Junior Prize.

This collection brings together perspectives from industrial relations, political economy, political theory, labour history, sociology, gender studies and regulatory theory to build a more inclusive theory of labour law. That is, a theory of labour law that is more inclusive of non-traditional workers (including those in atypical work, or from non-traditional backgrounds); more inclusive of a variety of collective approaches to work regulation that foster solidarity between workers; and more inclusive of interdisciplinary and complex explanations of labour law and its regulatory spaces. The individual chapters speak to this theme of inclusivity in different ways and offer different suggestions for how it might be achieved. They break down the barriers between legal research and other fields, to promote fruitful and integrative conversations across disciplines. In the spirit of inclusivity and intergenerational dialogue, the book blends contributions from early career and emerging scholars with those from leading scholars in the field, featuring critical commentary from senior labour law figures alongside theoretically and empirically informed work.

This Handbook provides an accessible overview of the different methods, approaches and theories which can be used to enrich labour law research. Drawing on cutting-edge research projects, leading scholars present insights and reflections on the past, present and future of labour law scholarship.Canvassing theory, as well as legal, qualitative and quantitative methods, this engaging Handbook draws on international perspectives to explore how labour law research methods vary across jurisdictions. The Handbook considers the use of ethnography, multilingual research with EU migrant workers, Indigenous research methodologies and surveys to accumulate data. Featuring chapters on feminist critique, vulnerability theory, industrial relations, economic analysis, anthropology and socialist labour law, it puts forward an integrated approach to framing and developing labour law research projects.Research Methods in Labour Law is an essential resource for postgraduate and research students, early career academics and senior scholars looking for legal methodological inspiration. It is particularly useful for those in the fields of labour and employment law, research methods in law, and socio-legal research.

This edited collection draws together papers delivered at a symposium on New Frontiers in Empirical Labour Law Research held at the University of Cambridge in April 2014. It contains contributions from established and emerging experts across a range of disciplines (including employment relations, industrial psychology, sociology, economics and political science) to consider four broad themes: the case for empiricism in labour law; the potential for mixed methods; methodological possibilities and insights from other disciplines; and practical challenges and words of caution for those conducting empirical research.This collection seeks to cultivate confidence and competence in empirical methods among both established and young labour law scholars, through an intergenerational and interdisciplinary ‘lessons learned’ dialogue. It contributes to the broader debate regarding empirical research methods in labour law, and casts light on how empirical research can be conducted in highly contested fields to enhance labour law policy-making. This collection aims to inspire labour lawyers to embark upon new forms of empirical research, both to enrich their existing research projects, and to ask new research questions. It offers the first stage of a collaborative and interdisciplinary dialogue on empirical labour law research, to emphasise the importance of collaboration and intergenerational mentoring in building empirical capacity.