Working it out? The Labour Process and Employment Relations in the New Economy

Összefoglaló

A new lexicon pervades the new economy - buzzwords such as 'knowledge society', 'flexicurity', 'employability' and 'organisational learning' abound, tripping off the lips of not just policy-makers but also social scientists; all of which are seeking to capture and articulate the essence of a changing world of work and employment. This book is the fruit of number of years of collaboration amongst a group of experts (labour lawyers, economists, sociologists) with a multi-disciplinary, multi-professional and multinational background. It draws together a series of studies investigating different dimensions of this change centred on the reconfiguration of the labour process and employment relations within the context of institutional transformation. Hungary, as with most of the Central and East European (CEE) post-socialist countries, is affected by these changes. Almost twenty years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, these countries are still groping their way forward as capitalist systems, and their still transforming politics, civil society and economies are creating a variety of models of capitalism in the region. Whether these models are transitional or more permanent remains to be seen, for in order to survive intense global competition and overcome emergent social tensions, all advanced industrial countries, not just those of the CEE are searching for innovative human resource practices, new organisational patterns, new forms of employment etc. Thus, the political-economic changes launched in the early 1990s present a 'double challenge' for the CEE countries. Firstly, they still have to catch-up with the industrialised countries of the EU-15 and, secondly, they too need to search for and adopt or adapt to new trajectories (or paths) of economic development. This book is essential reading for students, policy-makers, journalists, academics or anyone with an interest in the changing nature of work and employment within the context of the new economy.