Carola Frege - Böcker

Contemporary employment research tackles an increasingly globalized subject, much of it using empiricist and a-theoretical methods increasingly embedded in a market-economic paradigm. However, this stands in stark contrast to employment research's historical roots. Exploring these roots, Carola Frege traces how employment research was born out of the industrial and also democratic transformations of the 19th century and shows that the variations of employment research can be traced back to nation-specific state traditions. In particular, how countries conceptualized their relationship between political and industrial democracy, to what extent their labour movements were more state-oriented, and what influence the state had on the organization of higher education and scientific research, and shaped research topics, methods, theories, and paradigms. The book argues that these different research cultures are still with us today, despite increasing globalization of the subject matter and growing internationalization of the academic world. Based on a comparative historical analysis of research characteristics in Britain, Germany, and the US, this book investigates how employment research developed in different ways in different countries. A longitudinal cross-country comparison of publications in the main journals of the field reveals that employment research is still deeply embedded in longstanding country-specific institutional and ideational traditions. Frege makes the case for embracing this diversity, and rejuvenating the subject of employment research through a rediscovery of its policy-oriented research traditions, and a reinstatement of its relevance for society.

As unions face an ongoing crisis all over the industrialized world, they have often been portrayed as outmoded remnants of an old economic structure. This book argues that despite structural shifts in the economy and in politics, unions retain important functions for capitalist economies as well as for political democracy. Union revitalization in the face of their current difficulties is therefore of fundamental importance.The book charts the strategies unions are using to respond to global union decline and to revive their fortunes in five countries - US, UK, Germany, Italy and Spain - providing a wide range of institutional settings, union structures, identities and union responses. It provides a rich source of documentation about union activity, but more importantly it goes beyond description to address two of the big questions in comparative research: How can we explain cross-country differences of union responses to global decline? And how effective are these actions in helping to revitalize the labour movements? Union strategies and union revitalization outcomes varied strongly across countries and were shaped by national industrial relations institutions, as well as by the interactions between union, employer and state strategies. These findings support the argument for national divergence of the varieties of capitalism literature and challenge the globalization thesis which predicts a degree of convergence in the fate of union movements across the advanced capitalist world. There is no single revitalization strategy that works well for all union movements; the same strategy is likely to produce different results in different countries. Moreover, evidence for variation in revitalization outcomes emerges most clearly when we adopt a multi-dimensional conceptualization of revitalization, moving beyond union membership and density to embrace economic and political power as well as the institutional dimension of union reform. Despite serious revitalization attempts in all countries the scale of revitalization is extremely modest when compared to the great upsurges of unionism in history.Varieties of Unionism presents important research and analysis of union strategy for academics and graduate students of Industrial Relations, Management, Politics, Political Economy, and Sociology.

Employment Relations is widely taught in business schools around the world. However, an increasing emphasis is being placed on the comparative and international dimensions of the relationships between employers and workers. It is becoming crucial to consider today’s work and employment issues alongside the dynamics between global financial and product markets, global production chains, national and international employment actors and institutions, and the ways in which these relationships play out in different national contexts.Comparative Employment Relations in the Global Economy addresses this need by presenting a cross-section of country studies – including the UK, Germany, USA, Brazil, India, Russia, China and South Africa – alongside integrative thematic chapters covering essential topics such as theoretical approaches, collective representation and employment regulation. This second edition benefits from: Careful updates to theory and real-life developments Fuller treatment of topics such as labour migration, gender and discrimination, global value chains and corporate governance A more logical ordering of chapters, with globalization issues appearing earlierThis textbook is the perfect resource for students on advanced undergraduate and postgraduate comparative and international programmes across areas such as employment relations, industrial relations, human resource management, political economy, labour politics, industrial and economic sociology, regulation and social policy.