Power resource theory revisited: The perils and promises for understanding contemporary labour politics

2021 ◽  
pp. 0143831X2110533
Author(s):  
Bjarke Refslund ◽  
Jens Arnholtz
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Resource Theory ◽  
Historical Understanding ◽  
Power Resource ◽  
Original Theory ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Common Criticism ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Power Resource Theory

While their power is declining, unions and workers remain prominent actors in society. Therefore, there is a need to bring power resource theory back to the analytical forefront in the study of contemporary labour politics and labour market sociology. It provides the analytical perspectives necessary for a comprehensive and historical understanding of labour markets and labour politics. However, this article argues that the original theory developed by Korpi needs to be reassessed and further developed. Revisiting the original theory and reviewing common criticism, the authors argue that power resource theory should pay closer attention to how different types of power resources are mobilised and used and how actors’ interests are shaped during that process. The article seeks to address these issues and thus move power resource theory forward and pave the way for future theorisation.

Enhancing gender equality through transitional labour markets

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günther Schmid
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Full Employment ◽  
Unpaid Work ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Training Child ◽  
Paid And Unpaid Work

This article develops the concept of ‘transitional labour markets': legitimised and collectively insured sets of mobility options between paid and unpaid work. Such mobility options could constitute a basis for both a new gender contract and a new concept of full-employment, the latter being based on the flexible target of 30 hours a week, from which employees would constantly deviate over their life course to allow for periods of training, child-care, higher-income phases etc. Of five different types of transitional labour market, this article focuses on the transition between paid and unpaid work and between work and retirement. Greater flexibility in the mobility between various labour market statuses, it is argued, would make a major contribution to overcoming gender inequality.

scholarly journals The future of the standard employment relationship: Labour law, new institutional economics and old power resource theory

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 374-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Fudge
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Employment Relationship ◽  
Resource Theory ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Manufacturing Firm ◽  
Power Resource ◽  
Power Resource Theory ◽  
Standard Employment Relationship

This article addresses two questions about the standard employment relationship that have become prominent in labour law literature: Does it exacerbate inequality? Is its decline inevitable? The focus is on the second question and emphasizes the extent to which the standard employment relationship was both embedded in, and the outcome of, an institutional ensemble that was fashioned out of the post-war capital–labour compromise in industrialized democracies. The analysis proceeds in three steps. The first is conceptual and stresses the distinctive nature of labour as a fictive commodity, and the recurring regulatory dilemmas that arise in any attempt to institutionalize a labour market. The second step historicizes and contextualizes the employment relationship, emphasizing politics and conflict (power resource theory) over rational choice and coordination (new institutional economics) as the basis for its institutionalization. The emphasis on politics, power and labour leads to the third step, which focuses on how the broad process of financialization influences three key institutions – the large manufacturing firm, the democratic welfare state and autonomous trade unions – that have been crucial for the development of the standard employment relationship.

scholarly journals ‘Dual’ labour market? Patterns of segmentation in European labour markets and the varieties of precariousness

2021 ◽  
pp. 102425892110610
Author(s):  
Hyojin Seo
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
Dead End ◽  
European Working ◽  
Different Types ◽  
European Working Conditions Survey ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Job Prospects

This article aims to empirically explore how European labour markets are segmented and who the outsiders are. The article moves beyond the dichotomous approach to understanding labour market division, often based solely on examining employment relationships. Taking a multi-dimensional approach to defining labour market precariousness, this study incorporates aspects such as income, job prospects and subjective insecurity. Latent Class Analysis is used on data taken from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey to extend the traditional definition of outsider-ness. Four labour market segments are found: insiders and three different types of outsiders: typical outsiders, dead-end insiders and subjective outsiders. Looking at the cross-national aspect, variations are found in the segmentation patterns, especially in terms of who the outsiders are. The findings show the need to examine various aspects of labour precariousness in order to capture the complexity of post-industrialised labour markets and identify different types of outsiders across Europe that need to be protected for building a more cohesive society.

scholarly journals Power Resources and Income Inequality in Switzerland and Singapore

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Kerem Coban
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Explanatory Variable ◽  
Full Employment ◽  
Recent Decade ◽  
Resource Theory ◽  
Labour Unions ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Power Resource Theory

This chapter endeavours to explain rising inequality in Singapore and Switzerland from a power-resource theory perspective which will be accompanied with the idea of trilemma between earnings equality, full employment, and budgetary restraint. Recent decade has observed rising inequality in two countries, and this chapter mainly argues that the limited role of labour in policymaking process seems to be one but critical explanatory variable in highly decentralised and centralised political context in Switzerland and Singapore, respectively. Besides the role of political institutions, distinct experiences with labour unions, historical evolution of social policies, the need for more integration with world economy, and ageing are also taken into account for a comprehensive understanding of forces behind rising inequality which is instrumented as the gap between top and lower income deciles. This chapter concludes that all forces interdependently play their respective roles; meaning it is difficult to separate one from another. Finally, it calls for being responsive to incessant changes in domestic arena with a focus on shifts in demography, labour demand, aspiration of the youth while maintaining soundness of fiscal capacity.

scholarly journals Explaining Quebec's Social Economy Turn

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Arsenault
Keyword(s):  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Social Economy ◽  
Process Tracing ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Resource Theory ◽  
Prise De Décision ◽  
Power Resource ◽  
Decision Stage ◽  
Bargaining Position ◽  
Power Resource Theory

Québec has been structuring and promoting a social economy sector since the mid-1990s. What explains this specificity of the Québec social model? Careful process tracing analysis reveals that the mobilization of Québec’s left in the mid-1990s, followed by coalition engineering during the 1996 economy and employment summit, account for Québec’s distinct trajectory. Consistent with power resource theory (PRT), at the agenda-setting stage, protagonists of Québec’s social economy policies were associated with the left. Contrary to what is assumed by PRT, however, at the decision stage, the right’s consent to social economy policies was not conditioned by a weak bargaining position or by a fear of antagonizing voters.RÉSUMÉLe Québec appuie et structure un secteur de l’économie sociale depuis le milieu des années 1990. Comment expliquer cette spécificité du modèle social québécois? Une analyse attentive du retraçage des processus révèle que la mobilisation de la gauche québécoise au milieu des années 1990, suivie d’une coalition autour de l’économie sociale formée au moment du Sommet sur l’économie et l’emploi en 1996, expliquent la trajectoire distincte du Québec. De façon cohérente avec la théorie des ressources de pouvoir (PRT), à l’étape de la mise à l’agenda, les protagonistes des politiques visant à appuyer l’économie sociale au Québec étaient associés à la gauche. Contrairement à ce qui est supposé par la PRT, cependant, à l’étape de la prise de décision, l’appui de la droite à ces politiques ne reposait pas nsur un faible rapport de force ou sur une crainte de s’aliéner les électeurs.

New forms of intra-European migration, labour market dynamics and social inequality in Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Verwiebe ◽  
Laura Wiesböck ◽  
Roland Teitzer
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Second Step ◽  
Market Dynamics ◽  
Migration Patterns ◽  
European Continent ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Migration

This article deals mainly with new forms of Intra-European migration, processes of integration and inequality, and the dynamics of emerging transnational labour markets in Europe. We discuss these issues against the background of fundamental changes which have been taking place on the European continent over the past two decades. Drawing on available comparative European data, we examine, in a first step, whether the changes in intra-European migration patterns have been accompanied by a differentiation of the causes of migration. In a second step, we discuss the extent to which new forms of transnational labour markets have been emerging within Europe and their effects on systems of social stratification.

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