On Nov. 1st, Dr. Chris King hosted a Ray Marshall Center seminar on “Flexicurity in the EU” given by Professors Thomas Hastings and Jason Heyes of the Sheffield University Management School’s Work Organisation and Employment Relations Research Centre (WOERRC), a research center aimed at generating and disseminating high-quality research “that has the potential to inform and shape academic debates and influence policy and practice.” The seminar was based on their paper titled “Farewell to flexicurity? Austerity and labour policies in the European Union” (see abstract below), which was first published in the Economic and Industrial Democracy journal in March 2016. You can view their presentation here.
Dr. King is part of the Sheffield University/University of Texas at Austin’s Study Abroad program that supports inter-university collaborations across the globe. He presented a seminar in March 2016 in England as part of this program.
Abstract: For the past decade the European Commission has urged EU member states to pursue ‘flexicurity’ policies aimed at achieving employment growth and social inclusion. However, the economic crisis and turn to austerity across the EU has presented the flexicurity model with a substantial challenge. Their paper argues that since 2008 labour policies across the EU have exhibited shared tendencies, but support for measures that might contribute to the achievement of the security aspects of flexicurity has been substantially weakened. In developing this argument, the paper presents findings from a cluster analysis and detailed investigations of labour policies in EU member countries. The paper also discusses the implications of the findings for comparative institutional analysis. Differences in the approaches of countries that are commonly treated as members of the same institutional family are highlighted, as well as similarities in the policies adopted by countries commonly associated with different ‘varieties’ of capitalism.
Bios:
Dr. Thomas M. Hastings is a Lecturer in HRM and Organisational Behaviour at the Work, Organisation and Employment Relations Research Centre (WOERRC) at Sheffield University Management School. He is also Associate Fellow at the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI). His research interests include economic geography, labour geography, labour process theory and labour market regulation.
Mr. Jason Heyes is a Professor of Employment Relations and Director of the Work, Organisation and Employment Relations Research Centre (WOERRC) at Sheffield University Management School. His current research interests include labour market regulation and the changing structure of European labour markets.
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