Welfare reform, precarity and the re-commodification of labour
In: Work, employment and society: a journal of the British Sociological Association, Band 30, Heft 1, S. 162-173
ISSN: 1469-8722
While welfare reform matters for workers and workplaces, it is peripheral in English-language sociology of work and industrial relations research. This article's core proposition is that active labour market policies (ALMPs) are altering the institutional constitution of the labour market by intensifying market discipline within the workforce. This re-commodification effect is specified drawing on Marxism, comparative institutionalism, German-language sociology and English-language social policy analysis. Because of administrative failure and employer discrimination, however, ALMPs may worsen precarity without achieving the stated goal of increasing labour market participation.