This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (20) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Doogan, K. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Insecurity and Long-Term Employment

University of Bristol

There is a widespread view that `jobs for life' and stable employment have been consigned to the past. The impact of technological and institutional changes are said to have eradicated traditional labour market patterns, brought about the destandardisation and individualisation of work and ushered in a new `age of insecurity'. The transformation of work, according to Sennet (1998), has witnessed the advent of a `New Capitalism' in which there is `no long term'. This paper is concerned with explanations for the paradox of pervasive insecurity and the rise in long-term employment in the 1990s in the UK. The analysis of long-term employment in the UK suggests that insecurity is not explained by compositional changes in the workforce or in terms of labour market restructuring. Instead insecurity is best understood in its institutional and ideological contexts, as the `manufactured uncertainty' that attends the greater exposure of the state sector to market forces, corporate restructuring in the private sector in terms of mergers, acquisitions and sell-offs and the diminution of social protection systems.

Work, Employment & Society, Vol. 15, No. 3, 419-441 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/09500170122119093


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. Rubery, M. Marchington, D. Grimshaw, M. Carroll, and S. Pass Employed under different rules: the complexities of working across organizational boundaries Cambridge J Regions Econ Soc, November 1, 2009; 2(3): 413 - 427. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Wickham, G. Collins, L. Greco, and J. Browne Individualization and Equality: Women's Careers and Organizational Form Organization, March 1, 2008; 15(2): 211 - 231. [Abstract] [PDF]

				R. Fevre Employment insecurity and social theory: the power of nightmares Work Employment Society, September 1, 2007; 21(3): 517 - 535. [Abstract] [PDF]

				L. McDowell, K. Ward, D. Perrons, K. Ray, and C. Fagan Place, Class and Local Circuits of Reproduction: Exploring the Social Geography of Middle-class Childcare in London Urban Stud, November 1, 2006; 43(12): 2163 - 2182. [Abstract] [PDF]

				M. Roderick A very precarious profession:: Uncertainty in the working lives of professional footballers Work Employment Society, June 1, 2006; 20(2): 245 - 265. [Abstract] [PDF]

				K. Doogan Long-term Employment and the Restructuring of the Labour Market in Europe Time Society, March 1, 2005; 14(1): 65 - 87. [Abstract] [PDF]

				M. Orton Irresponsible citizens? New Labour, citizenship and the case of non-payment of local taxation Critical Social Policy, November 1, 2004; 24(4): 504 - 525. [Abstract] [PDF]

				K. Platman 'Portfolio Careers' and the Search for Flexibility in Later Life Work Employment Society, September 1, 2004; 18(3): 573 - 599. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. Parry The Changing Meaning of Work: Restructuring in the Former Coalmining Communities of the South Wales Valleys Work Employment Society, June 1, 2003; 17(2): 227 - 246. [Abstract] [PDF]

				M. Gold and J. Fraser Managing Self-management: Successful Transitions to Portfolio Careers Work Employment Society, December 1, 2002; 16(4): 579 - 597. [Abstract] [PDF]