The State and 'Globalization': Comparative Studies of Labour and Capital in National Economies (Employment and Work Relations in Context)

This collection of country studies explores changing relationships between the state, employers and labour in an increasingly internationalized world economy. It covers ten countries and examines the tensions and contradictions caused by neo-liberal market agendas. The authors express concern at the potentially ravaging effects of market deregulation on organized labour and present a critical account of state efforts to emulate desired models of national economic development. While the central core of the book concerns itself with changing labour relations, this is placed within the wider context of state and employer strategy, and covers issues such as labour market segmentation, welfare and taxation regimes and varying approaches to corporatism.

Martin Upchurch is Senior Lecturer in International Employment Relations at the University of the West of England, Bristol. He has written a number of  articles on the transformation of industrial relations in eastern Germany since  Unification and has worked for a year in East Berlin as a secondary school teacher. He is currently researching the effectiveness of trade union renewal  strategies in the UK. For a number of years prior to lecturing he worked as a  research officer for a public sector trade union in Britain.