Comparing European Workers Part B: Policies and Institutions

From active labor market policies to public childcare, and from corporatism to labor unions, the policies and institutions of European labor markets have always been a source of rich debate. This volume examines the policies and institutions that European societies utilize to address the challenges facing workers, work, and labor markets. In the process, it appraises how the classic solutions for workers are undergoing transformations and what those transformations mean for the future of work in Europe. Many of these policies and institutions have evolved in important ways, and yet, this volume provides evidence of continued high effectiveness. Moreover, many of the popular discussions about the trade-offs and costs of such policies and institutions are overstated. The Volume features chapters on the returns to education, social policies and single mother employment, dualism, unionization in Eastern and Western Europe, and the consequences of globalization for the effects of unions. The volume concludes with a reflective discussion on both volumes and the potential contributions of cultural sociology to the study of European workers. This volume and its companion place the jobs, labor, labor markets, workplaces, and workers of Europe in comparative perspective. The companion volume focuses on experiences and inequalities regarding work and workers in Europe (Brady, 2011). Both volumes compare workers within and between European countries, and between European and other countries. Both volumes are also interdisciplinary and methodologically diverse. The two volumes provide a research agenda for and state-of-the-art investigation of European workers.