Timo Fleckenstein
Biographic Data
| ID | 257330 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Timo Fleckenstein |
| GIVEN NAMES | Timo |
| FAMILY NAME | Fleckenstein |
| SIGNATURE | FLECKENSTEIN T |
| AFFILIATIONS | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0154-7644 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 315 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
What has Happened to the Poster Child
South Korean democracy had been under attack. This was most apparent in President Yoon Suk-Yeol’s attempt to impose martial law. But it was not the only challenge to Korean democracy, previously regarded as one of the most successful third-wave de-mocracies. Though not calling into question episodes of democratic regression, this ar-ticle challenges arguments of Korean democracy backsliding and instead points to the country’s democratic rollercoa…
From Labor Market Dualization to Inclusive Growth? Trade Unions and the Politics of Labor Market Reform in South Korea
The landslide victory of the center-left Moon Jae-In in the 2017 presidential election opened a window of opportunity for progressive reform in South Korea. Elected on a platform of social inclusion and fairness and with support from organized labor, the Moon Jae-In government (2017-22) made at first considerable progress in advancing inclusive labor market reform and an alternative growth model against opposition from business, but the administr…
Skills and Training in Hierarchical Capitalism
From an economic model in which education and growth reinforced each other, South Korea has developed a pathological equilibrium holding back economic and social progress. Low labour productivity and skills mismatch undermine the economic prospects of the country, and sharp rises in inequality in an ever more dualised labour market erode social cohesion. Governments of different political persuasion have recognised these challenges, and they have…
Dualisation, education and the knowledge economy
In post‐war Germany and South Korea, not only was vocational education and training key to the two countries' export‐oriented growth models, it also promoted social inclusion. More recently, the knowledge economy has put this skills‐based, inclusive growth model under pressure, and we see labour market dualisation calling into question the social contracts in the two countries. Studying education reform in Germany and Korea, we analyse government…
Labour market dualization, permanent insecurity and fertility
This paper explores the relationship between labour market dualization, insecurity and low fertility, through a case study of South Korea, an extreme case of ultra-low fertility where the total fertility rate fell to 0.84 in 2020. It is argued that the long-term nature of the insecurity associated with dualization, as well as its impact on people’s perceptions of present and future insecurity, mark dualization out as a particular phenomenon whose…
Covid (in)equalities
How have differently institutionalized welfare regimes dealt with the Covid-19 crisis? In particular, how have they confronted the social and economic inequalities exposed by the virus? Taking three European countries—Germany, Sweden, and the UK, corresponding broadly to conservative-continental, social democratic, and liberal regime types—this paper tracks the virus response in the areas of income and employment protection and health and residen…
Roads and Barriers towards Social Investments
Across the OECD world, social investment policies are on the rise, which Hemerijck describes as a ‘quiet paradigm revolution’. Whilst Nordic countries are typically considered the pioneers in social investment policies, we observe that latecomer countries of not only Europe but also East Asia have made considerable efforts to catch-up with Northern European frontrunners. The rise of social investment policies, especially the expansion of family p…
Organised Labour, Dualisation and Labour Market Reform
Labour markets across industrialised countries are under considerable pressure with governments implementing deregulating reforms in particular at the margins of the labour market, whereas regular workers have often seen very little decline in employment protection. Employers have been pushing hard for labour market deregulation, and it is therefore easy to see a government-business alliance at the heart of these developments. But where are trade…
The political economy of education and skills in South Korea
The success story of Korean economic development is intimately linked with the so-called developmental state; and education policy, as part of centrally orchestrated industrial policy, played a critical role in the country's rapid industrialisation, which allowed for high employment rates, relatively modest social inequality and remarkable social mobility. However, the Korean success story has started to show ‘cracks’ – with labour market dualisa…
Social Solidarity for All? Trade Union Strategies, Labor Market Dualization, and the Welfare State in Italy and South Korea
Challenging the new political-economic 'mainstream' that considers trade unions to be 'complicit' in labor market dualization, this article's analysis of union strategies in Italy and South Korea, most-different union movements perceived as unlikely cases for the pursuit of broader social solidarity, shows that in both countries unions have successively moved away from insider-focused strategies and toward 'solidarity for all' in the industrial r…
Democratization, post-industrialization, and East Asian welfare capitalism
This review article provides an overview of the scholarship on the establishment and reform of East Asian welfare capitalism. The developmental welfare state theory and the related productivist welfare regime approach have dominated the study of welfare states in the region. This essay, however, shows that a growing body of research challenges the dominant literature. We identify two key driving factors of welfare reform in East Asia, namely demo…
The Politics of Labor Market Reform in Coordinated Welfare Capitalism
Coordinated welfare capitalism has been subject to comprehensive change since the 1990s, with workfare measures and the deregulation of employment protection at the heart of labor market reforms. Developments in Sweden, Germany, and South Korea challenge not only the assumption of relative stability that is commonly associated with the study of coordinated market economies, but also the assertion that this stability is associated with the persist…
The Politics of Investing in Families
Family policy addresses some of the important challenges of post-industrial societies, and represents an important dimension of the recent transformation of advanced welfare capitalism. This article analyses the development of family policy in the two East Asian latecomer countries of Japan and South Korea, where we witness significant policy expansion starting in the 1990s—with the latter displaying much bolder expansion and defamilization. Expl…
The Politics of Postindustrial Social Policy
Recent welfare reforms across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have sought to make social policies more “employment friendly.” Although “old” social policies of the Golden Age (namely, unemployment protection and old-age security, which were typically geared toward the male breadwinner model) were subject to comprehensive retrenchment, “new” social policies, especially family policies facilitating work–family reco…
Learning to Depart from a Policy Path
While new institutionalism with its path-dependence theory has proved to be an especially powerful device for explaining the stability and inertia of public policies, its focus on the stickiness of institutions has contributed to conceptual deficits in grasping and explaining actually occurring policy change which have attracted much criticism. With reference to the critical case of German labour market reforms, policy learning is identified as a…
The Politics of Labour Market Reforms and Social Citizenship in Germany
Since the second half of the 1990s, German labour market policy has experienced paradigmatic changes, undermining the conservative ideal of preserving social status and maintaining achieved living standards. Reforms carried out by the conservative–liberal government of the 1990s focused largely on workfare measures. This development had its roots in the progressive disintegration of the cross-class alliance of organised business and trade unions …
The Dual Transformation of Social Protection and Human Capital
Institutions, Ideas and Learning in Welfare State Change
Investigates the transformation of German labour market policy, showing that Germany has departed from the conservative-corporatist path of welfare, especially with the Hartz Legislation of the Red-Gr
The Politics of Ideas in Welfare State Transformation
The expansion of employment-centered family policies of the Grand Coalition in Germany came with some surprise, as Christian Democrats have traditionally been strongly committed to the male breadwinner model and corresponding family policies. This article investigates why Christian Democrats (though with some inconsistencies) promoted “social-democratic” family policies guided by the adult worker rather than by the male breadwinner model. Illumin…
Business, skills and the welfare state
Family policies have been expanded in many OECD countries, whilst developments along other welfare state dimensions have been characterized by retrenchment. Although the contribution of gender analyses of the welfare state to a better understanding of family policies is widely acknowledged, the literature so far has largely failed to provide a comparative account explaining the recent expansions of employment-oriented family policies in countries…
The Dual Transformation of Social Protection and Human Capital
Britain and Germany have been experiencing significant changes in the nature of work and welfare since the 1990s. Although important differences have remained, there have been compelling indications of a dual transformation of welfare constituted not only by a far-reaching retrenchment in unemployment insurance but also by a remarkable expansion in family policy. These developments have their functional underpinnings in accelerating deindustriali…
Party Politics and Childcare
The expansion of childcare provision in the traditionally ‘service‐lean’ welfare states of England and Germany, in times when most other welfare programmes faced retrenchment, came with some surprise to the comparative social policy and political economy literature. With the expansion of employment‐oriented family policies, both countries have departed from their previous strong male breadwinner trajectories. Electoral competition and correspondi…
The Political Economy of Occupational Family Policies
With a shift in the political debate to more market‐driven social policy approaches during the past decade, politicians in a number of European countries have argued that employers should take on greater responsibilities in the provision of social policy. But why should employers get involved? After reviewing the relevant literature on firm‐level social policy, we analyse the conditions and causal pathways that lead to their provision. Our findin…
Restructuring welfare for the unemployed
The `Hartz legislation' of 2003/04, which restructured the benefit and administrative system for the long-term unemployed in Germany, is commonly ascribed to the recommendations made by the Hartz Commission and the political leadership of Chancellor Schröder. These aspects have been crucial politically in policy making, but are insufficient to fully explain this legislation. Here it is argued that the Hartz Commission was largely insignificant in…
Filling in the gaps
The article addresses the way in which EU policy‐making operates, explains the relevance of ‘lifelong learning’ for the European Commission and analyses the mechanisms by which the Commission has advanced policy‐making in education and training since the Lisbon Summit. The article reviews in particular the alleged lack of effectiveness of the Open Method of Coordination in education and, second, the notion that the EU advances ‘slowly and persist…
The Politics of Postindustrial Social Policy
Recent welfare reforms across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have sought to make social policies more “employment friendly.” Although “old” social policies of the Golden Age (namely, unemployment protection and old-age security, which were typically geared toward the male breadwinner model) were subject to comprehensive retrenchment, “new” social policies, especially family policies facilitating work–family reco…
The Politics of Ideas in Welfare State Transformation
The expansion of employment-centered family policies of the Grand Coalition in Germany came with some surprise, as Christian Democrats have traditionally been strongly committed to the male breadwinner model and corresponding family policies. This article investigates why Christian Democrats (though with some inconsistencies) promoted “social-democratic” family policies guided by the adult worker rather than by the male breadwinner model. Illumin…
Restructuring welfare for the unemployed
The `Hartz legislation' of 2003/04, which restructured the benefit and administrative system for the long-term unemployed in Germany, is commonly ascribed to the recommendations made by the Hartz Commission and the political leadership of Chancellor Schröder. These aspects have been crucial politically in policy making, but are insufficient to fully explain this legislation. Here it is argued that the Hartz Commission was largely insignificant in…
The Dual Transformation of Social Protection and Human Capital
Britain and Germany have been experiencing significant changes in the nature of work and welfare since the 1990s. Although important differences have remained, there have been compelling indications of a dual transformation of welfare constituted not only by a far-reaching retrenchment in unemployment insurance but also by a remarkable expansion in family policy. These developments have their functional underpinnings in accelerating deindustriali…
Discourse, Learning and Welfare State Change
In this article we argue that Germany has significantly changed its approach to labour market policies (LMPs) during the past decade; in many instances Britain has served as a model to learn from. In a first step, we identify the core institutional arrangements of the conservative approach to LMP in Germany and contrast them with the liberal approach, using the UK as an example. Secondly, we trace the development and nature of changes in German L…
Business, skills and the welfare state
Family policies have been expanded in many OECD countries, whilst developments along other welfare state dimensions have been characterized by retrenchment. Although the contribution of gender analyses of the welfare state to a better understanding of family policies is widely acknowledged, the literature so far has largely failed to provide a comparative account explaining the recent expansions of employment-oriented family policies in countries…
The Politics of Labor Market Reform in Coordinated Welfare Capitalism
Coordinated welfare capitalism has been subject to comprehensive change since the 1990s, with workfare measures and the deregulation of employment protection at the heart of labor market reforms. Developments in Sweden, Germany, and South Korea challenge not only the assumption of relative stability that is commonly associated with the study of coordinated market economies, but also the assertion that this stability is associated with the persist…
Social Solidarity for All? Trade Union Strategies, Labor Market Dualization, and the Welfare State in Italy and South Korea
Challenging the new political-economic 'mainstream' that considers trade unions to be 'complicit' in labor market dualization, this article's analysis of union strategies in Italy and South Korea, most-different union movements perceived as unlikely cases for the pursuit of broader social solidarity, shows that in both countries unions have successively moved away from insider-focused strategies and toward 'solidarity for all' in the industrial r…
Organised Labour, Dualisation and Labour Market Reform
Labour markets across industrialised countries are under considerable pressure with governments implementing deregulating reforms in particular at the margins of the labour market, whereas regular workers have often seen very little decline in employment protection. Employers have been pushing hard for labour market deregulation, and it is therefore easy to see a government-business alliance at the heart of these developments. But where are trade…
The Politics of Labour Market Reforms and Social Citizenship in Germany
Since the second half of the 1990s, German labour market policy has experienced paradigmatic changes, undermining the conservative ideal of preserving social status and maintaining achieved living standards. Reforms carried out by the conservative–liberal government of the 1990s focused largely on workfare measures. This development had its roots in the progressive disintegration of the cross-class alliance of organised business and trade unions …
The Politics of Investing in Families
Family policy addresses some of the important challenges of post-industrial societies, and represents an important dimension of the recent transformation of advanced welfare capitalism. This article analyses the development of family policy in the two East Asian latecomer countries of Japan and South Korea, where we witness significant policy expansion starting in the 1990s—with the latter displaying much bolder expansion and defamilization. Expl…
Filling in the gaps
The article addresses the way in which EU policy‐making operates, explains the relevance of ‘lifelong learning’ for the European Commission and analyses the mechanisms by which the Commission has advanced policy‐making in education and training since the Lisbon Summit. The article reviews in particular the alleged lack of effectiveness of the Open Method of Coordination in education and, second, the notion that the EU advances ‘slowly and persist…
The political economy of education and skills in South Korea
The success story of Korean economic development is intimately linked with the so-called developmental state; and education policy, as part of centrally orchestrated industrial policy, played a critical role in the country's rapid industrialisation, which allowed for high employment rates, relatively modest social inequality and remarkable social mobility. However, the Korean success story has started to show ‘cracks’ – with labour market dualisa…
Europeanisation of German labour market policy? The European employment strategy scrutinised
Considerable policy change has been initiated with the recent labour market reforms in Germany. Discussing these reforms, commentators focused on the national factors driving these changes, while the ‘European’ dimension of labour market policy-making was largely neglected. By contrast, in the literature on European social policy, the capacity of the European Employment Strategy (EES) to contribute to domestic policy change is much discussed. Acc…
Labour market dualization, permanent insecurity and fertility
This paper explores the relationship between labour market dualization, insecurity and low fertility, through a case study of South Korea, an extreme case of ultra-low fertility where the total fertility rate fell to 0.84 in 2020. It is argued that the long-term nature of the insecurity associated with dualization, as well as its impact on people’s perceptions of present and future insecurity, mark dualization out as a particular phenomenon whose…
Covid (in)equalities
How have differently institutionalized welfare regimes dealt with the Covid-19 crisis? In particular, how have they confronted the social and economic inequalities exposed by the virus? Taking three European countries—Germany, Sweden, and the UK, corresponding broadly to conservative-continental, social democratic, and liberal regime types—this paper tracks the virus response in the areas of income and employment protection and health and residen…
Learning to Depart from a Policy Path
While new institutionalism with its path-dependence theory has proved to be an especially powerful device for explaining the stability and inertia of public policies, its focus on the stickiness of institutions has contributed to conceptual deficits in grasping and explaining actually occurring policy change which have attracted much criticism. With reference to the critical case of German labour market reforms, policy learning is identified as a…
Party Politics and Childcare
The expansion of childcare provision in the traditionally ‘service‐lean’ welfare states of England and Germany, in times when most other welfare programmes faced retrenchment, came with some surprise to the comparative social policy and political economy literature. With the expansion of employment‐oriented family policies, both countries have departed from their previous strong male breadwinner trajectories. Electoral competition and correspondi…
Roads and Barriers towards Social Investments
Across the OECD world, social investment policies are on the rise, which Hemerijck describes as a ‘quiet paradigm revolution’. Whilst Nordic countries are typically considered the pioneers in social investment policies, we observe that latecomer countries of not only Europe but also East Asia have made considerable efforts to catch-up with Northern European frontrunners. The rise of social investment policies, especially the expansion of family p…
Skills and Training in Hierarchical Capitalism
From an economic model in which education and growth reinforced each other, South Korea has developed a pathological equilibrium holding back economic and social progress. Low labour productivity and skills mismatch undermine the economic prospects of the country, and sharp rises in inequality in an ever more dualised labour market erode social cohesion. Governments of different political persuasion have recognised these challenges, and they have…
Dualisation, education and the knowledge economy
In post‐war Germany and South Korea, not only was vocational education and training key to the two countries' export‐oriented growth models, it also promoted social inclusion. More recently, the knowledge economy has put this skills‐based, inclusive growth model under pressure, and we see labour market dualisation calling into question the social contracts in the two countries. Studying education reform in Germany and Korea, we analyse government…
Europeanisation of German labour market policy? The European employment strategy scrutinised
Considerable policy change has been initiated with the recent labour market reforms in Germany. Discussing these reforms, commentators focused on the national factors driving these changes, while the ‘European’ dimension of labour market policy-making was largely neglected. By contrast, in the literature on European social policy, the capacity of the European Employment Strategy (EES) to contribute to domestic policy change is much discussed. Acc…
Discourse, Learning and Welfare State Change
In this article we argue that Germany has significantly changed its approach to labour market policies (LMPs) during the past decade; in many instances Britain has served as a model to learn from. In a first step, we identify the core institutional arrangements of the conservative approach to LMP in Germany and contrast them with the liberal approach, using the UK as an example. Secondly, we trace the development and nature of changes in German L…
Restructuring welfare for the unemployed
The `Hartz legislation' of 2003/04, which restructured the benefit and administrative system for the long-term unemployed in Germany, is commonly ascribed to the recommendations made by the Hartz Commission and the political leadership of Chancellor Schröder. These aspects have been crucial politically in policy making, but are insufficient to fully explain this legislation. Here it is argued that the Hartz Commission was largely insignificant in…
Filling in the gaps
The article addresses the way in which EU policy‐making operates, explains the relevance of ‘lifelong learning’ for the European Commission and analyses the mechanisms by which the Commission has advanced policy‐making in education and training since the Lisbon Summit. The article reviews in particular the alleged lack of effectiveness of the Open Method of Coordination in education and, second, the notion that the EU advances ‘slowly and persist…
The Political Economy of Occupational Family Policies
With a shift in the political debate to more market‐driven social policy approaches during the past decade, politicians in a number of European countries have argued that employers should take on greater responsibilities in the provision of social policy. But why should employers get involved? After reviewing the relevant literature on firm‐level social policy, we analyse the conditions and causal pathways that lead to their provision. Our findin…
Party Politics and Childcare
The expansion of childcare provision in the traditionally ‘service‐lean’ welfare states of England and Germany, in times when most other welfare programmes faced retrenchment, came with some surprise to the comparative social policy and political economy literature. With the expansion of employment‐oriented family policies, both countries have departed from their previous strong male breadwinner trajectories. Electoral competition and correspondi…
The Dual Transformation of Social Protection and Human Capital
Institutions, Ideas and Learning in Welfare State Change
Investigates the transformation of German labour market policy, showing that Germany has departed from the conservative-corporatist path of welfare, especially with the Hartz Legislation of the Red-Gr
The Politics of Ideas in Welfare State Transformation
The expansion of employment-centered family policies of the Grand Coalition in Germany came with some surprise, as Christian Democrats have traditionally been strongly committed to the male breadwinner model and corresponding family policies. This article investigates why Christian Democrats (though with some inconsistencies) promoted “social-democratic” family policies guided by the adult worker rather than by the male breadwinner model. Illumin…
Business, skills and the welfare state
Family policies have been expanded in many OECD countries, whilst developments along other welfare state dimensions have been characterized by retrenchment. Although the contribution of gender analyses of the welfare state to a better understanding of family policies is widely acknowledged, the literature so far has largely failed to provide a comparative account explaining the recent expansions of employment-oriented family policies in countries…
The Dual Transformation of Social Protection and Human Capital
Britain and Germany have been experiencing significant changes in the nature of work and welfare since the 1990s. Although important differences have remained, there have been compelling indications of a dual transformation of welfare constituted not only by a far-reaching retrenchment in unemployment insurance but also by a remarkable expansion in family policy. These developments have their functional underpinnings in accelerating deindustriali…
The Politics of Labour Market Reforms and Social Citizenship in Germany
Since the second half of the 1990s, German labour market policy has experienced paradigmatic changes, undermining the conservative ideal of preserving social status and maintaining achieved living standards. Reforms carried out by the conservative–liberal government of the 1990s focused largely on workfare measures. This development had its roots in the progressive disintegration of the cross-class alliance of organised business and trade unions …
Learning to Depart from a Policy Path
While new institutionalism with its path-dependence theory has proved to be an especially powerful device for explaining the stability and inertia of public policies, its focus on the stickiness of institutions has contributed to conceptual deficits in grasping and explaining actually occurring policy change which have attracted much criticism. With reference to the critical case of German labour market reforms, policy learning is identified as a…
The Politics of Postindustrial Social Policy
Recent welfare reforms across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have sought to make social policies more “employment friendly.” Although “old” social policies of the Golden Age (namely, unemployment protection and old-age security, which were typically geared toward the male breadwinner model) were subject to comprehensive retrenchment, “new” social policies, especially family policies facilitating work–family reco…
The Politics of Investing in Families
Family policy addresses some of the important challenges of post-industrial societies, and represents an important dimension of the recent transformation of advanced welfare capitalism. This article analyses the development of family policy in the two East Asian latecomer countries of Japan and South Korea, where we witness significant policy expansion starting in the 1990s—with the latter displaying much bolder expansion and defamilization. Expl…
Democratization, post-industrialization, and East Asian welfare capitalism
This review article provides an overview of the scholarship on the establishment and reform of East Asian welfare capitalism. The developmental welfare state theory and the related productivist welfare regime approach have dominated the study of welfare states in the region. This essay, however, shows that a growing body of research challenges the dominant literature. We identify two key driving factors of welfare reform in East Asia, namely demo…
The Politics of Labor Market Reform in Coordinated Welfare Capitalism
Coordinated welfare capitalism has been subject to comprehensive change since the 1990s, with workfare measures and the deregulation of employment protection at the heart of labor market reforms. Developments in Sweden, Germany, and South Korea challenge not only the assumption of relative stability that is commonly associated with the study of coordinated market economies, but also the assertion that this stability is associated with the persist…
The political economy of education and skills in South Korea
The success story of Korean economic development is intimately linked with the so-called developmental state; and education policy, as part of centrally orchestrated industrial policy, played a critical role in the country's rapid industrialisation, which allowed for high employment rates, relatively modest social inequality and remarkable social mobility. However, the Korean success story has started to show ‘cracks’ – with labour market dualisa…
Social Solidarity for All? Trade Union Strategies, Labor Market Dualization, and the Welfare State in Italy and South Korea
Challenging the new political-economic 'mainstream' that considers trade unions to be 'complicit' in labor market dualization, this article's analysis of union strategies in Italy and South Korea, most-different union movements perceived as unlikely cases for the pursuit of broader social solidarity, shows that in both countries unions have successively moved away from insider-focused strategies and toward 'solidarity for all' in the industrial r…
Roads and Barriers towards Social Investments
Across the OECD world, social investment policies are on the rise, which Hemerijck describes as a ‘quiet paradigm revolution’. Whilst Nordic countries are typically considered the pioneers in social investment policies, we observe that latecomer countries of not only Europe but also East Asia have made considerable efforts to catch-up with Northern European frontrunners. The rise of social investment policies, especially the expansion of family p…
Organised Labour, Dualisation and Labour Market Reform
Labour markets across industrialised countries are under considerable pressure with governments implementing deregulating reforms in particular at the margins of the labour market, whereas regular workers have often seen very little decline in employment protection. Employers have been pushing hard for labour market deregulation, and it is therefore easy to see a government-business alliance at the heart of these developments. But where are trade…
Covid (in)equalities
How have differently institutionalized welfare regimes dealt with the Covid-19 crisis? In particular, how have they confronted the social and economic inequalities exposed by the virus? Taking three European countries—Germany, Sweden, and the UK, corresponding broadly to conservative-continental, social democratic, and liberal regime types—this paper tracks the virus response in the areas of income and employment protection and health and residen…
Dualisation, education and the knowledge economy
In post‐war Germany and South Korea, not only was vocational education and training key to the two countries' export‐oriented growth models, it also promoted social inclusion. More recently, the knowledge economy has put this skills‐based, inclusive growth model under pressure, and we see labour market dualisation calling into question the social contracts in the two countries. Studying education reform in Germany and Korea, we analyse government…
Labour market dualization, permanent insecurity and fertility
This paper explores the relationship between labour market dualization, insecurity and low fertility, through a case study of South Korea, an extreme case of ultra-low fertility where the total fertility rate fell to 0.84 in 2020. It is argued that the long-term nature of the insecurity associated with dualization, as well as its impact on people’s perceptions of present and future insecurity, mark dualization out as a particular phenomenon whose…
Skills and Training in Hierarchical Capitalism
From an economic model in which education and growth reinforced each other, South Korea has developed a pathological equilibrium holding back economic and social progress. Low labour productivity and skills mismatch undermine the economic prospects of the country, and sharp rises in inequality in an ever more dualised labour market erode social cohesion. Governments of different political persuasion have recognised these challenges, and they have…
Economics (24 works) · Political science (24 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (22 works) · Politics (19 works) · Market economy (17 works) · Labour economics (14 works) · Labor Movements and Unions (13 works) · Law (13 works) · Welfare (13 works) · Welfare state (13 works)