Sociology

The 1990s saw an important shift from long-term reform sclerosis in the Italian industrial relations and welfare state systems to important innovations, both in the mode of policy making (concertation via social pacts) and the content of reform (decentralization in the collective bargaining system and greater flexibilization of a highly-rigid labour market). After 1998, concertation weakened considerably once macro-economic convergence for EMU membership had been achieved, and contestation of the collective bargaining system and labour market regulation reappeared. This article seeks to explain the rise and demise of concertation over the past decade or so, and to assess the consequences of reform for wage bargaining and employment.

This article examines the possibilities for immigrants in Spain to converge with natives around certain key aspects of work: such as stability, salaries, career advancement. The concept of the work schedule becomes crucial to seeing the extent to which immigrants have made progress or not in the process of integration and mobility from their entry into the labor market until the time the study was completed, 2007. Possible answers to this question are constructed by differentiating various groups of immigrants by country of origin, that is according to structural or individual features, making it possible to understand why some tend to converge and others do not. The itinerary gives us a dynamic picture of the phenomena, and suggests the diversification of an artificial homogeneity of immigrant groups (also, of course, of the indigenous groups) to break down widespread stereotypes.

This article analyses some implications for trade unions of social pacts. Unions’ participation in tripartite agreements has been one response to tensions triggered by the decentralisation and individualisation of employment relations. However, their involvement in social pacts renders it increasingly difficult for unions to strike a positive-sum balance between competing logics of influence and membership. Following an analysis of four countries with social pacts, this article shows that trade unions’ participation in social pacts has been most successful when unions have pursued a strategy of ‘articulation’ between their different levels of organisation by enhancing the participation of rank-and-file members in decision making and by strengthening company level representation structures.

El objetivo de este capítulo es ofrecer en primer lugar un panorama de la evolución de la estrategia europea de empleo y su re-formulación en el contexto de la crisis económica. En segundo lugar, se analizan las políticas de empleo de algunos estados miembros para hacer frente al nuevo contexto y la influencia de las orientaciones europeas en éstas. En un contexto de persistente diversidad institucional, también las políticas han variado mucho y se han alejado de los principios orientadores europeos. Palabras clave: política de empleo, Estrategia de Lisboa, flexiseguridad, Europa 2020, políticas activas Abstract This chapter aims at providing a general overview of the development of the European Employment Strategy and its revision in the context of the economic crisis. The paper also looks at employment policies followed by some member states as a reaction to the economic crisis and to what extent have been influenced by European guidelines. In a context of persistent institutional diversity, there has also been significant variation across policies implemented by member states which have very often departed from EU-level recommendations.

Después de agotada la edición impresa de la tirada inicial de 1.500 ejemplares, se va a proceder a reeditar, sólo en formato digital, el ANUARIO 2012 de la Fundación 1 de Mayo dividido en los once apartados que componen las áreas temáticas en que se ha estructurado su contenido y que irán apareciendo sucesivamente. La paginación del interior corresponde a la originaria de la edición impresa.