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Quality Work and the Moral Economy of European Employment Policy
Author(s) -
Bolton Sharon,
Laaser Knut,
Mcguire Darren
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/jcms.12304
Subject(s) - flexicurity , commodification , flourishing , restructuring , moral economy , ideology , work (physics) , quality (philosophy) , marketization , historical materialism , precarious work , sociology , economics , political science , market economy , law , politics , epistemology , psychology , china , social psychology , mechanical engineering , philosophy , marxist philosophy , engineering
Following a decade of radical economic and workplace restructuring, it is important to understand how state employment policies support or deny human flourishing. This article utilizes a realist document analysis approach and reviews European employment policy through a moral economy lens. It fuses different moral economy approaches, drawing together the work of Karl Polanyi and Andrew Sayer a multi‐layered conceptual lens is offered that explores the tensions between a commodification of labour and human needs. A dominant market ideology is revealed, highlighting how quality work has been subsumed by the flexicurity agenda in the EU.