Social Advantage and Disadvantage by Hartley Dean & Lucinda Platt

Author:Hartley Dean & Lucinda Platt
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780198737087
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2016-01-21T05:00:00+00:00

As important (perhaps more important) to the well-being of workers than the strain of their jobs when they are at work is the relationship between their jobs and the rest of their lives; between paid work and unpaid work; between labour and social reproduction. The changes in the functioning and character of labour markets that have occurred in the past few decades have altered the dynamics of the interface between ‘work’, family, and recreational activity. It has been suggested that it is changes in the household economy that may hold the key to the future shape of post-industrial society (Esping-Andersen, 1999), though in many ways it may be seen that household survival strategies have necessarily been adapting to the flexibilization of labour markets (Dean and Shah, 2002). Since the 1990s, policymakers in the global north have been driven to facilitate some mutual accommodation between labour markets and household living and earning strategies, by introducing extended parental leave schemes, the enhancement of childcare and the promotion of ‘family friendly’ employment practices (Kröger and Yeandle, 2014; Lewis, 2006; and see Chapter 11, this volume). What is clear, however, is that so far as employers are concerned, there may be a business case for work-life balance or work-family reconciliation policies and practices where these assist the retention of valued professional and skilled workers, but none at all when it comes to expendable low-skilled workers (Dean, 2002). In practice flexible employment arrangements can work to the advantage of some workers, but to the disadvantage of others.

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