1st Edition

Constructing Unemployment The Politics of Joblessness in East and West

By Phineas Baxandall Copyright 2004
278 Pages
by Routledge

278 Pages
by Routledge

278 Pages
by Routledge

As the longest economic boom in history has given way to leaner times, unemployment has re-emerged as a major issue. This theoretically and empirically sophisticated book examines how unemployment takes on widely different political meanings and explores the ways in which governments act to change their own accountability for unemployment. It contributes to the comparative political economy... Read more
Contents: Introduction: Changing meanings of unemployment. From Multiple Changes in a Single Case to International Comparisons: Communism without an unemployment taboo; Birth of the unemployment taboo and its defence in early reforms; Eroding employment to avoid unemployment; Migratory birds, work shirkers and the redefinition of unemployment; Rising unemployment and its political disappearance after communism: toward regional and international comparisons. Comparative Cases: Comparative cases of conceptual change: America, Britain, the USSR and municipalities near Geneva; Comparing the political importance of unemployment across the European Union. Theory and Predictions: How the meaning of unemployment is constructed; The future of unemployment; Bibliography; Index.

Biography

Phineas Baxandall