Rethinking employment relations

This chapter will set out to construct a conceptual framework for understanding and analyzing empirical discussions. A number of overarching points, however, are worth repeating. First, the evolution of labor studies to include a growing number of methodologies and perspectives necessitates a moment of clarification as to how these methodologies and perspectives will be operationalized here. The divergence between the literatures of work and occupation on the one hand and labor relations on the other has generated a plethora of ways in which basic concepts have been used, operationalized and even measured. Second, the historical transformations brought about by neoliberal globalization, the advent of flexibility as the dominant mode of production, and the ongoing global economic crisis require a re-evaluation of concepts such as work, labor, employment, occupation and job. Third, inherent transformations in the essence of work, labor, employment and other related concepts require a moment of clarification. In the case of work, the conventional understanding of this term has been that it refers to tasks undertaken outside of the home and produced in a separate spatial setting for the market. Today, home-based work is a significant component of global production. What was essentially physical labor – as in the case of blue-collar workers – has now come to mean physical, mental and even emotional labor employed in the production of tangible goods and intangible services. Employment has traditionally referred to a continuous relationship under a formal contract in the case of lifetime full proletarianization, whereas now, with the rise of contingent employment, the form and the contract of employment have been radically transformed. The conceptual discussion, then, will be followed by a review of the implications of technological developments and economic crisis on employment relations, and a close examination of the labor movement and its potential to form a firm stance in the faces of contemporary economic challenges.