ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explains temporary agency work (TAW) and its wide social implications with a slightly different emphasis. It explores on the essential link between macro-level, structural analysis and micro-level, empirical endeavour, between grandiose political discourses and everyday realities and between social structure and human agency. Many contributors have stressed that the state's regulatory and enforcement responsibilities are crucial to the quality of flexible work as well as better protection for vulnerable workers in precarious employment. TAW is a controversy-laden field where the flexibility versus inequality debate juxtaposes the market-oriented, commodified person in the exchange relationship with the person. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) settles upon the well-known maxim labour is not a commodity', which rejects the perception of social relationships among people as economic relationships among money and commodities exchanged in the marketplace.
