Some of our work on the flexibilisation of employment

The term 'flexibility' is used in a variety of different ways in relation to the restructuring of work. Used in the 1970s as a demand by women for forms of work that might make it easier to combine economic activities with care and unpiad work. During the 1980s it was increasingly used by policymakers and employers to describe forms of flexibility that could be used to achieve efficiencies and economies in the workplace.

This flexibilisation process took a variety of forms, including:

• contractual flexibility 
• time flexibility
• spatial flexibility
• flexibility in the allocation of tasks and use of skills

Implicit in all discussions of flexibility is the  hidden dimension of power, raising the question: 'flexible for whom?' or, more concretely, 'whose choices are increased and whose are constrained by these developments? and how?'. It is necessary to ask, of any given form of 'flexibility', 'who benefits, and who loses?' and, given that in many cases there are complex tradeoffs between costs and benefits, 'what are the social and economic outcomes for any given social group?' as well as 'What are the cumulative effects for society as a whole?'.

In one way or another our research has investigated all of these aspects of flexibilisation, including looking at their implications for the nature of national welfare systems, for the domestic division of labour, for equality of opportunity and for the restructuring of value chains and the changing international division of labour.

Below is a small selection from our publications that touch on these questions.

‘Fixed, Footloose or fractured: work, identity and the spatial division of labour’ in Monthly Review, Vol 57 No 10, March , 2006

‘What will we do? The destruction of occupational identities in the Knowledge-based Economy’, Monthly Review, Vol 57 No 8 January, 2006
           
Labour Market Changes and Welfare Perspectives in the EU: a Review of the Evidence    LAW project report    March, 2005 

The Making of a Cybertariat:  Virtual Work in a Real World  Monthly Review Press,  New York and Merlin Press, London, 2003

When Work takes Flight: Final report of the EMERGENCE Project, IES Report 397, Institute for Employment Studies 2003

'Flexing the Balance of Power', in Employment Review, Industrial Relations Services/Eclipse,  March 2003        
 
'Unsichere Freiheit - Freiberufliche Telearbeit, Autonomie und Geschlechterrollen in Europa' in Winker, G (ed), Telearbeit und Lenensqualitat, Campus,2002   

'The Restructuring of  Employment in the Information Society and its Implications for Social Protection' in Work Organization and Social Exclusion in the European Information Society, Campus Frankfurt/M, Frankfurt, 2002

Equality and Telework in Europe in  European Trade Union Confederation, 2001

‘Societa dell’informazione, occupazione e cittadinanza sociale’ in Mirabile, M.L. (ed)  Lavoro e Welfare della New Economy,   L’Assistenza Sociale, Oct-Dec 2000

‘The Changing Gender Division of Labour in the Transition to the Knowledge Society’ in Rubenson, K. and Schuetse, H.G. (eds) Transition to the Knowledge Society:  Policies and Strategies for Inidividual Participation and Learning, University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, 2000

Teleworking and Local Government:  What are the Costs and Benefits?,  Local Government Management Board, London, 1999

' Women, participation and Democracy in the Information Society '  conference paper Citizens at the Crossroads:  Whose Information Society?. Heritage Canada, London, Ontario,  October, 1999

'Flexibilisierung und Sicherheit:  Auf dem Weg zu einem neuen europäischen Gleichgewicht', in Zilian, H.G. and Flecker, J (eds), Flexibilisierung - Problem oder Lösung?. Edition Sigma, Berlin April, 1998

'Flexible Labour Markets and Equality Between the Sexes:  threat or opportunity?' in Mosconi, N., (ed) Égalité des Sexes en Éducation et Formation, Presses Universitaries de France, Paris, 1998

Flexibility and Security: towards a new European Balance, Citizens Income Trust, 1998
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Virtually Free:  Gender, Work and Spatial Choice, NUTEK, Sweden, September, 1997 (co-editor, with Gunnarsson, E. and author of two chapters)

'Autonomy, power and gender: telematics and the paradox of choice' published in Swedish as  'Distansarbete Kraver en Valfardsstat' in Manniskan Jobbeet & den Nya Industrin,  Lars Skold and Gunnar von Sydow (eds) Svensa Industritjanstemannaforbundet (SIF), Stockholm,  1997

Flexible Labour Markets and Social Protection in Europe, Report to the European Commission, DGV, 1996

'Gender and Economic Restructuring in the UK' in Gender, British Council Briefing Issue 1, British Council in association with Change, 1996

'Training and Flexible Work' in Flexible Working, February, 1996

'Follow-up to the White Paper - Teleworking',  Social Europe, Supplement 3, European Commission DGV, 1995

'Telework: projections', in Futures, January, 1991

'The Global Restructuring of Service Industries and its Implications for Women' in IRENE Newsletter, Industrial Restructuring Network Europe, March, 1991

'Equality for Whom? Tensions between the Individual and Collective Aspirations of Women in the Workplace' in, The Construction of Sex/Gender. What is a Feminist Perspective?, Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and the Social Sciences, 1990

''Grasping the Political Nettle: Job Design' in Women and the Built Environment Quarterly, Issue 14: the Office, 1990

Telework: Towards the Elusive Office (with Korte, W., and Robinson, S.) John Wiley, 1990

What Price Flexibility?: the Casualisation of Women's Employment, (co-author with Hurstfield, J. and Holtmaat, R.), Low Pay Unit, September l989

Negotiating for Equality, a guide to tackling sex discrimination in collective agreements, Equal Opportunities Commission, l988

Equal Opportunities for Local Authority Workers: the Trade Union Experience in Seven London Boroughs, London Strategic Policy Unit, Empirica UK, 1987

'Terminal Isolation: the Atomisation of Work and Leisure in the Wired Society', in Making Waves, Radical Science 16, Winter/Spring 1985

Sweated Labour: Homeworking in Britain Today, Low Pay Unit, 1984 (with Bisset, L.)

The New Homeworkers, Report of a Research Project Commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission, Low Pay Unit, 1984