Quality of Work in the European Union : Concept, Data and Debates from a Transnational Perspective

This collective volume on quality of work in the European Union offers a comprehensive analysis on the current situation of the tensions between work and welfare in Europe, with a special emphasis on employment-related issues. The volume tackles a crucial aspect of employment policies, namely the strengthening of the quality dimension in the decisions taken by policy-makers to foster the performance of the labour market and to combine this orientation with the demands of workers for welfare, protection and a better reconciliation of work and family life. Quality of work has been on the agenda of policy-makers, practitioners and academics for the last few years, promoting a wide debate.
The book provides a contribution to this debate and takes into consideration a range of issues associated with the analysis of work quality from an innovative perspective. Relevant subtopics including a conceptual and political analysis of work quality, wage differentials and in-work poverty, gender issues or workers’ direct and indirect representation in the firm and its relation with work quality are addressed.

The Editors: Ana M. Guillén is Professor of Sociology at the University of Oviedo (Spain). She is an internationally recognized expert on comparative social policy. She acts as a consultant to the European Commission and the International Labour Organization. Currently she is co-coordinator of Strand 3 (Tensions between Quality and Quantity of Jobs) of the RECWOWE Network of Excellence (2006-2011).
Svenn-Åge Dahl is Deputy Director at the Department of Research Management at the University of Bergen. His research and publications concentrate on social insurance, health and labour market issues. Until July 2008 he was co-coordinator of Strand 3 (Tensions between Quality and Quantity of Jobs) of the RECWOWE Network of Excellence (2006-2011).