The Political Economy of European Employment

Focuses on the emergence of employment policy as a political issue and examines unemployment in Europe in the context of globalisation, the implementation of European Monetary Union and the Eastern enlargement of the EU.

Henk Overbeek is Associate Professor of International Relations at the Vrije Universiteit, the Netherlands, and Adjunct Professor of International Relations at Webster University, also in the Netherlands.

Chapter 1 Transnational political economy and the politics of European (un)employment, Henk Overbeek; Part 1 The changing political economy of employment; Chapter 2 Globalization, neo-liberalism and the employment question, Henk Overbeek; Chapter 3 Changes in welfare regimes and the search for flexibility and employability, Bob Jessop; Chapter 4 European employment policy between neo-liberal rationalism and communitarianism, Hans-Jürgen Bieling; Part 2 Europeanizing employment policy; Chapter 5 The emergence of European employment policy as a transnational political arena, Stefan Tidow; Chapter 6 Economic and Monetary Union, employment and gender politics, Brigitte Young; Chapter 7 European unemployment and transnational capitalist class strategy, Bastiaan van Apeldoorn; Part 3 The articulation of global and EU tendencies with national dynamics; Chapter 8 From Thatcherism to New Labour, Bob Jessop; Chapter 9 Competitive corporatism?, Uwe Becker; Chapter 10 The political economy of labour-market restructuring and trade union responses in the social-democratic heartland, Magnus Ryner, Thorsten Schulten; Chapter 11 Mediterranean labour and the impact of Economic and Monetary Union, Leila Simona Talani, Emma Cerviño; Part 4 Conclusion; Chapter 12 Conflicting views on how to address (un)employment in Europe, Henk Overbeek;