Sociology: work & labour
Organisations, careers and caring
With the increase in mothers' employment both the government and many employers are promoting flexible working policies to improve work-life 'balance'. This report considers the effects of these changes on the lives of both women and men. It examines three employment sectors in detail - banking, grocery retail and local authorities.
New policies for older workers
Against a background of population ageing, policy makers in the majority of industrialised countries are developing policies aimed at extending working life and promoting the benefits of employing older workers. This report reviews developments in several countries and offers recommendations for public policy.
Money, choice and control
The financial circumstances of early retirement
This report looks at the role of finances in decisions about early moves out of work. Drawing on in-depth interviews with people who make an early retirement, it makes a distinctive contribution to understanding their experiences, looking at the importance of money alongside other influences, including health and domestic circumstances.
Employment transitions of older workers
The role of flexible employment in maintaining labour market participation and promoting job quality
This report explores the possibilities of more flexible forms of work that bridge the gap between a steady career job and retirement. It examines such jobs in the wider context of the types of transition that are being made by people leaving work early.
Graduates from disadvantaged families
Early labour market experiences
This is the last of three reports in a longitudinal study that has followed the journey of a group of young people from less advantaged families through Higher Education and into the labour market. This report focuses on the young people's progress from full-time study into the graduate labour market. Free PDF available at www.jrf.org.uk
The Class Ceiling
Why it Pays to be Privileged
This important book takes readers behind the closed doors of elite employers to reveal how class affects who gets to the top. Drawing on 200 interviews across four case studies - television, accountancy, architecture, and acting – it explores the complex barriers facing the upwardly mobile.
Past it at 40?
A grassroots view of ageism and discrimination in employment
There is a growing recognition that people over the age of fifty experience discrimination in the labour market. This ground-breaking report provides new evidence that ageism and discrimination are also having devastating effects on the lives of people as young as forty, with a cost to the economy of up to £31 billion per year.
Youth Employment
STYLE Handbook
With contributions from over 90 authors and more than 60 individual contributions this collection summarises the findings of a large-scale EU funding project on Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe (STYLE).
The Reformation of Welfare
The New Faith of the Labour Market
Inspired by ideas from economic theology, this provocative book uncovers deep-rooted religious concepts and shows how they continue to influence contemporary views of work and unemployment.
Work
Personal lives and social policy
This book explores some of the diverse ways in which work helps to structure the relations between social policy and personal lives. Drawing on a wealth of theory, the authors explore questions that are central to our understanding of how the personal is not only shaped in and through work, but also contributes to social relations at work.
Women's Work
How Mothers Manage Flexible Working in Careers and Family Life
This book is the first to go inside women’s work and family lives in a year of working flexibly. The private labours of going part-time, job sharing, and home working are brought to life with vivid personal stories, concluding that there is an opportunity to make employment and family life work better together.
Lone parents, employment and social policy
Cross-national comparisons
Policy makers across the world confront issues relating to lone parents and employment, with many governments seeking to increase the participation of lone parents in the labour market. This book offers an analysis of policies and provisions in several countries, identifying policy lessons. Chapters are written by experts on lone parenthood.