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The research unit is involved in five closely related (and in part overlapping) areas of research:
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n The labour market and the welfare
state: The social protection of labour market risks over the life
course – |
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The restructuring of the interface between the labour market and the welfare state is now regarded as an essential prerequisite for the resolution of the persistent or constantly impending employment crisis in Europe. While the projects in the other research areas investigate individual aspects of this major issue, the theoretical and empirical approach adopted in this area is an holistic one. The unit’s argument is that the regulative notion of transitional labour markets is an academically fruitful approach to the problem of operationalising the still somewhat vague notions of the ‘activating’ welfare state, the ‘social investment state’ and ‘preventive’ or ‘proactive’ labour market policy in order that they can be applied to the labour market. The notion of risk management through transitional labour markets is based on the assumption that the risk of long-term unemployment, which can be a major catastrophe for individuals, the economy and society at large, can be largely avoided by putting in place measures to protect against the risks that typically arise in the course of the working life. These risk include the wrong choice of occupation, the obsolescence of skills and qualifications, changes in occupational preferences, fluctuating demand for labour, changes in employment preferences or working time, dismissal or redundancy, starting a family or other changes in personal circumstances (divorce or partner’s move) and chronic illness or reduced efficiency because of handicap and/or age. These risks are not new, but are occurring more frequently and many economically active individuals are increasingly being exposed to an accumulation of risks. This raises a certain number of questions. What adjustment processes can be observed in the labour market policies being pursued in the various European employment systems? Are the trends converging or diverging? Can ‘good practices’ be identified? Are they transferable? What are the (political and economic) determinants of a successful reform programme? At the same time, however, a number of unresolved fundamental questions concerning theory formation in the social sciences, the development of a complex theory of governance, particularly in the context of the still undeveloped notion of risk management, and the appropriate methodological design for the comparative evaluation of transitional processes and the corresponding processes of reform in labour market policy are also to be addressed.
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n The efficiency and effectiveness of
labour market policy |
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The primary concern in this research area is the effectiveness of labour market policy. On the one hand, the research unit is continuing the tradition of combining aggregated effects analyses, qualitative implementation studies and various methods of benchmarking at regional and national level. On the other hand, it is adding to the contributions of micro-sociological and microeconomic causal models on the effectiveness of labour market policy with regard to long-term career paths. The hypothesis underpinning the research is that labour market policy is all the more effective and efficient the more its implementation is based on clear target management at central level and decentralised operational responsibility. In detail, the following questions are being addressed. How and with what degree of success is the Hartz plan for reform of the Federal Labour Office being implemented? This applies particularly to the acceleration of job placement by means of job centres, personnel services agencies and systematic benchmarking. What are the relevant success criteria for monitoring and controlling? How are learning processes successfully initiated among workers, employment agencies, service providers and regions? How do different ways of organising unemployment insurance, continuing training measures, dismissal protection, parental leave arrangements and the public childcare infrastructure affect households’ employment decisions and individuals’ long-term career paths? Where do the cognitive and institutional barriers to a future-oriented reform of labour market policy lie? What can we learn from the organisational reforms (new governance models, privatisation and contract management) other countries have introduced?
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n The ‘Europeanisation’ of the labour market
and of labour market policy |
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The aim of this research area is to depict and explain tendencies in
member states of the EU towards a Europeanisation of national
employment policies. The focus lies on the impact of supranational
institutions like the EU-Commission and the European Council on the
national formation of employment policies. In addition, we
investigate the mutual impact of national policies (policy
diffusion), and the relationship between EU employment policies and
other policy areas such as EU structural funds. The methodological
approach in this research area covers a broad variety ranging from
qualitative case studies to macro-quantitative comparisons.
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n Structural changes in employment |
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The aim of this research area is to analyse the structural change taking place in work and employment, with a particular focus on new employment relationships and qualification needs. Structural change poses a challenge to the established institutional arrangements on three levels: at the macro level, the systems of labour market regulation, vocational training and social security, at the meso level, the industrial relations system and the negotiation of pay and working conditions and, at the micro level, the gender division of labour in households, patterns of economic activity over the life course and the forms of employee involvement in the workplace. All three levels and their various interconnection are to be taken into account in the analysis. These developments make it necessary both to develop an ‘extended concept of work’ and to explicitly incorporate normative aspects such as quality of life social justice, social participation and environmental compatibility into the analysis. The central questions to be addressed are: How can individual employability be maintained as the structure and form of work undergo change? How can firms’ capacity to adapt (internal flexibility) be improved? How can income be safeguarded during training processes? What form of funding for further training guarantees efficient and fair risk management? What financial incentives are there for ‘investitive’ working-time reductions? How are job rotation and similar personnel development measures implemented?
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n Additional projects |
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