Roland Ahlstrand, Christopher J McLachlan, Robert MacKenzie, Alexis Rydell, Mark Stuart
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper compares responses to crises through analysis of labour market policy in Sweden and the UK between the Global Financial Crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic. In drawing on ‘restructuring regimes’, we offer insights into the dynamics of change in the two countries, focussing on the development of short-time working schemes. We argue that Sweden learned lessons from the GFC that helped prepare for future crises, whereas the UK’s muted response left it ill-prepared for the COVID-19 crisis. The paper contributes to debates around restructuring regimes through an analysis of the journey between two crises in which we characterise Sweden’s approach as proactive and pre-emptive and the UK’s as reactive and ad hoc. By locating analysis in traditions of self-regulation and voluntarism in Sweden and the UK, respectively, we expand upon the role that industrial relations play in maintaining the stability, or not, of national restructuring regimes.
期刊介绍:
It embraces a broad definition of industrial relations and includes articles which relate to any aspect of work and employment. It publishes rigorous and innovative work on and from all European countries, from the Atlantic to the Urals. All social science disciplines are relevant to its remit, and interdisciplinary approaches are particulary encouraged. A major objective is to foster cross-national comparative analysis; and in this context, work which relates European developments to broader global experience is welcome.