Ashgate: Aldershot 1999 (240 pages), £41.50. Order this book
This book discusses aspects of work in terms of social inclusion and exclusion. It explores unemployment and non-standard employment and evaluates social and labour-market policies and their effects in four European countries: Denmark, the UK, the Netherlands and Portugal. These represent the typical welfare regimes in Europe: a Scandinavian, social-democratic model; a liberal, Anglo-Saxon model; a corporate, ‘Bismarckian’ model; and a southern ‘variant’. The analyses provide a thorough insight into the variety of issues in recent labour-market developments in the four countries and combine this with an overview of the major schemes and programmes designed to combat social exclusion. The book is an important contribution to the debate on the development of a specific European strategy on work, unemployment and social inclusion based upon alternatives to new-liberal strategies.