Globalization, Labour Flexibility and Insecurity: The Era of Market Regulation

This article considers the international trends to more flexible labour relations in terms of the erosion of seven forms of labour-related personal security and the evolving forms of labour market regulation. It suggests that growing labour market flexibility has been accompanied by a reconstitution of the social wage and a profound re-regulation of labour relations, not `de-regulation', which is an inappropriate term to describe any labour market. The flexibility and market regulation has influenced the extent and character of labour fragmentation, which is creating new challenges for social and labour policy. The article concludes by sketching three possible routes of reform, one stemming from the former era of social regulation, the second extrapolating from the currently dominant market regulations perspective and the third linked to the desirable extension of democracy and the promotion of redistributive justice.