Description

In recent years flexibility has been one of the keywords in political and academic debates on the future of work. This emphasis on flexibility has all too often been to the detriment of the security of employees and people without paid work. On the other hand, increased flexibility of working hours and working life may be desired by those who wish to combine work with other priorities and activities such as caring for children or elderly relatives. The concept of 'flexicurity' aims to allow for the coexistence of both flexibility and security in the world of work.

The various contributors to this issue propose definitions of 'flexicurity' and policy options for implementing flexicurity, in its differing guises, which range from the optimistic to the cautious. Inter alia, they assess two approaches often put forward as ways of implementing the concept of flexicurity in the context of European welfare states, the 'transitional labour market' approach and the 'professional status' approach, and examine the potential for flexicurity of the 'capability approach' developed by Amartya Sen. Specific attention is given to people's needs for different types of flexibility and security at different stages of their life. To illustrate flexicurity policies in Europe, four country studies are included: two from countries where flexicurity policies have been considered successful (the Netherlands and Denmark) and two where flexicurity still has to be developed (Germany and Spain).

Coordinators

Table of contents

Editorial

Main articles

• Ton Wilthagen and Frank Tros: The concept of 'flexicurity': A new approach to regulating employment and labour markets
• Per Kongshøj Madsen: The Danish model of 'flexicurity': experiences and lessons
• Wim Van Oorschot: Flexible work and flexicurity policies in the Netherlands. Trends and experiences
• Berndt Keller and Hartmut Seifert: Flexicurity - the German trajectory
• Fernando Valdés Dal-Ré: The difficulty of reconciling flexibility and security in Spain: the paradigmatic case of part-time work
• Pierre Walthéry and Pascale Vielle: Reconciling security with flexibility: a few questions
• Ute Klammer: Flexicurity in a life-course perspective
• Matthieu de Nanteuil-Miribel and Mohamed Nachi: Flexibility and security: what forms of political regulation?

News and background

• Some reflections on a gender analysis of flexicurity
  (Maria Jepsen)
• Finding a negotiated balance between flexibility and security - Pacts for Employment and Competitiveness
  (Kevin O'Kelly)
• Balancing flexibility and security in central and eastern Europe
  (Sandrine Cazes and Alena Nesporova)

Book reviews

• Peter Auer and Sandrine Cazes (eds.):
  Employment stability in an age of flexibility.
  (Andrew Watt)
• A dinosaur has been sighted - German trade unions in the post-Fordist, globalised world. A review of: Wolfgang Schroeder and Bernhard Wessels (eds.), Die Gewerkschaften in Politik und Gesellschaft der Bundesrepublik Deutschland [The trade unions in German politics and society].
  (Jürgen Hoffmann)
• Marc de Vos (ed.):
  A Decade beyond Maastricht: The European Social Dialogue Revisited.
  (Wiebke Duvel)

Reports

• Lisbon reinvented. Setting the Lisbon Process back on track, a European Policy Centre conference, Brussels, 8 March 2004
  (Romuald Jagodziñski)