CFP: Proposed session for the RGS/IBG Annual Conference, 3- 5 July 2012,
Edinburgh, UK
Negotiating a new world of work: the geographies of labour market intermediaries
The world of work continues to change. Since the early 1970s labour markets in most OECD countries have been characterised by policies of deregulation. These have removed or marginalised the influence of labour market interventions such as trade unions, minimum wage, occupational health and safety laws and leave provisions, and instead, emphasised the need for ‘pure’ frictionless markets. With this, employment relations have become more individualised (evident in the low levels of union density), and we have seen the redesign of social-welfare, employment policies and industrial relations laws. Throughout this period labour market intermediaries, such as employment agencies and executive search companies, have developed multi-billion dollar industries, both the outcome of, and the causes behind, the on-going restructuring of labour market norms. It is against this backdrop that we understand the changes in employment practices in the last forty years and the rise of labour market intermediaries in our new mediated labour market. As the presence of many labour market intermediaries continues to grow, so their role in the labour market has attracted greater attention from academics, policy officials, trade unions and other interest groups.
This session seeks to bring together papers that explore the role of formal labour market intermediaries such as recruitment agencies, temporary staffing agencies, executive search firms, headhunters, ‘gate-keepers’ and managed service firms as well as informal labour market intermediaries such as gang masters and the like. The aim is to explore different types of labour market intermediaries and the ways in which these organisations are influencing permanent and temporary workers, trade union membership, national regulation, migrant workers, employment norms and any other aspects of the labour market in which intermediaries are playing a role.
We encourage abstracts from post-graduates, early career researchers as well as established researchers on issues including but not limited to:
Temporary staffing and agency work
Varieties of temporary staffing
Contract work
Contract cleaners and service workers
Career mobility
Professionalisation of the recruitment industry
Global expansion strategies of agencies
The facilitation of migrant workers by third parties
Regulation of the employment industry
The Deadline for submitting abstracts is the 15th January
Please send abstracts up to a maximum of 250 words, proposed titles and 5 keywords (clearly stating name, institution, and contact details) to Bryony Enright: [log in to unmask] and Jennifer Watts: [log in to unmask]
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