Economic Crisis, Quality of Work, and Social Integration, edited by Duncan Gallie. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013, 368 pp., ISBN: 978 0 19 966472 6, £27.50, paperback.
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12083 |
| Published date | 01 September 2014 |
| Date | 01 September 2014 |
industrial relations scholars is the holistic nature of its analysis and conclusions. Areas
of working life that are central to all paid employment are connected together in a
unifying, intellectually informative and satisfying narrative. At the end of the book,
McIvor calls for more studies of work that utilize ethnography, oral testimony and
worker autobiography. There are many researching the field of industrial relations
who would echo this appeal.
IAN GREENWOOD
University of Leeds
Economic Crisis, Quality of Work, and Social Integration, edited by Duncan Gallie.
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013, 368 pp., ISBN: 978 0 19 966472 6, £27.50,
paperback.
The European economy is slowly recovering from one of the worst economic crises of
its history. This crisis started in 2008, and two major phases in this crisis can be
distinguished: it started with the financial crisis that gradually changed into a pro-
longed and deep economic crisis from 2009 on. What can this experience teach us
about how countries should deal with such crises?
The research group Economic Life, Quality of Work and Social Cohesion
(EQUALSOC), under the guidance of Duncan Gallie, has produced a new book that
uses the results of the two waves of the European Social Survey (ESS) (2004, 2010)
and the European Union Labour Force Survey to look at the impact of the economic
crisis on employment practices, unemployment, social situation and even political
legitimacy. The researchers use an institutional approach to explain the differences in
response of employers to this crisis. This approach, they argue, is superior to work-
force degradation, creative destruction and workforce polarization theories. The
authors have the possibility to test two versions of the institutional approach, based
on production regime and employment regime. In the first version, employer
co-ordination predicts employer behaviour; in the second version, it is the relative
power of employers and employees that predicts societal developments.
The results are revealing for the capabilities of the different countries to tackle this
crisis. The book makes a strong argument against a single possible policy response to
deal with such an economic crisis, as for example the OECD would want us to believe.
The OECD insists that a policy of labour market liberalization and austerity is the
best way to improve economic stability and happiness of citizens. According to their
philosophy, decisions over production can best be left to employers.
The authors show convincingly that this reasoning may be contested. Using this
institutional approach, employer behaviour towards the crisis appears as inconsistent.
A very broad range of topics is analysed. And the findings are surprising: further
liberalization of labour markets will not lead to more convergence among employers.
The countries with the most liberal labour markets (i.e. Ireland, United Kingdom and
Eastern Europe) do not converge to one type of employer behaviour. Eventually,
within these liberalized economies, employers do not always behave in favour of the
greater good. One piece of evidence is reduced skilling efforts by employers. The drop
of 20 per cent in training efforts from 2004 to 2010 is unequally distributed over
Europe. Liberal and East European economies show the strongest drop. This is
disturbing given the further upskilling trend in the labour markets. Nordic countries
appear best at stabilizing their economies. People, employed and unemployed, are
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618 British Journal of Industrial Relations
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/London School of Economics.
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