The Dynamics of Full Employment: Social Integration Through Transitional Labour Markets (Labour Markets and Employment Policy series)

Persistent unemployment is recognised as one of the main mechanisms of social and political exclusion. The Dynamics of Full Employment provides a new and fresh approach to the question of full employment in contemporary society. It offers an internationally comparative, interdisciplinary approach to the dynamics of full employment and views the labour market not only as an economic institution, but as a social one.

The authors argue that transitional markets - defined as legitimate, negotiated and politically supported sets of mobility options - are becoming essential ingredients of successful employment policies in modern societies. Social integration through participation in the labour market should not exclude productive activity in other spheres of life.

The authors attempt to enhance the understanding, through empirical evidence, of the dynamics of modern labour markets and the theoretical foundation of transitional labour markets. They also aim to determine which arrangements (via institutional, legal and social security frameworks) might best be able to prevent or relieve structural unemployment.

This innovative and original book will be of interest to both academics and policymakers in the fields of public policy and labour market, and employment policy in particular.

Edited by Günther Schmid, Director of the Research Unit on Labour Market Policy and Employment, the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) and Professor Emeritus of Political Economics, Free University of Berlin, Germany and Bernard Gazier, Professor of Economics, Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, University of Paris 1 and CNRS, France