Neoliberal Capitalism and Precarious Work. Ethnographies of Accommodation and Resistance, edited by Rob Lambert and Andrew Herod. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2016, 335 pp., ISBN: 9781781954942, £81, hardback.

Date01 June 2017
Published date01 June 2017
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12233
Book Reviews 457
assume that this edited volume is entirely about future retirement or future pensions,
or predicts what retirement will look likeover the next 40 years.
What, then, is the value of Reimagining Pensions? The collection might have been
better crafted but, undoubtedly, its attractiveness lies in the generally high quality of
the 27 chapters and the strongreputation and expertise of the contributors.In the world
of retirement and pensions,this is as good as it gets; it may not be a perfect book but its
chapters are first rate.It could be adopted in graduate-level courses on human resource
management or pension law and guide the worksof researchers and legislators. It has
a laudable and largely accomplished mission, to critique and describe alternatives to
traditional pensions and the management of pension risks as dictated by the ERISA
in 1974. I expect that the book will spur econometric research on pensions and could
encourage lawmakersto propose pension reforms.
In brief, this volume provides numerous studies by members of law firms and
consulting groups and employee benefits research centres. It shows us the inner
workings of some of the most innovative ‘models for the future’ pensions, including
Defined Ambition Plans, Singapore’s Social Security Savings System and the TIAA-
CREF plan. It reveals the causes and eects of corporate underfunding of pensions,
the growthof defined contribution plans and the concepts of retirement well-being and
risk. Sandwiched between the opening list of contributors and the concluding list of
the Pension Research Council members, we have the crux of what makes retirement
and pensions so controversial, so complicatedand so important.
GARY CHAISON
Clark University
Neoliberal Capitalism and Precarious Work. Ethnographies of Accommodation and
Resistance, edited by Rob Lambert and Andrew Herod. Edward Elgar, Chelt-
enham, 2016, 335 pp., ISBN: 9781781954942, £81, hardback.
In the twenty-first century, neoliberal globalization is the dominant framework
condition for labourpolitics. When looking at the strategic reactions of political actors
such as trade unions, businesses and governments, what becomes apparent is that
downward competition does not only manifest itself in actual measures of relocating
production facilities, but also through its ideological underpinnings. One result of
this is a progressing tendency of precarization of employment relations all across the
globe. Against this background, the contributions to this book focus on ‘the form
and experience of the anxiety-producing work insecurity produced by neoliberalism’s
flexible work model’ (p.303). In doing so, a special emphasis of the chapters is placed
on limits and capacities to collective action of precarious workers.
In order to give a comprehensive account of political mobilization of precarious
workers,the editors have structured the book into two main parts.In the first part, six
case studies provide insights on subjective experiences of precarious work in dierent
countries. Joynt and Webster introduce the reader to the restructuring of the South
African clothing industry and its implications for local employment relations. With
temporary employment (Chauvin) and home-based work (Hattatoglu), the following
two chapters highlight the realities of two particular forms of precarious work. The
meaning of violence in workers’ resistance is inquired by Ngai and Huilin, who draw
C
2017 John Wiley& Sons Ltd.

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