Periodic Report Summary 2 - TEMS (The Effects of Marketization on Societies: The Case of Europe)
Marketization has an almost ghostly presence in Europe. It is difficult to observe, but its effects are disconcerting. The assault on the UK's trade unions during the 1980s, the postsocialist transition in Central and Eastern Europe during the 1990s, Germany's transition to a liberal market economy during the 2000s, the forced restructuring of Greece by the Troika in the 2010s, and decades of constant effort at the European level to promote the free flow of goods, services, capital, and labor: these all ratcheted up the disciplinary power of markets over citizens.
The TEMS project asks whether there is a link between marketization and growing inequality, and if so what its nature of this link is. What aspects of market competition matter for the power of workers and the poor? How does marketization affect the institutionalized protections these groups have from the market? How do corporate profit-making strategies co-evolve with changes in transactions? Is marketization leading to the rise of a chronically low-income, insecure, and disenfranchised group that could be called the precariat?
To answer these questions we use case studies of particular sectors and occupational groups from a variety of European countries. These are constructed using qualitative interviews and then subjected to a rigorous coding and comparative-analytic procedure.
The project runs from January 2013 to December 2016. In the first two years we have:
1. assembled a team that includes Ian Greer, Maria Mantynen, Lefteris Kretsos, Barbara Samaluk, Shanaz Sumra, and Charles Umney,
2. selected four workplace contexts in which to study these questions: social work, freelance musicians, hospitals, and ports.
3. selected four countries in which to study them – France, Slovenia, Greece, and Finland – plus selected UK cases.
4. conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 100 policymakers, managers, campaigners, and workers in these countries and at the European level in Brussels.
5. organized conferences in Greenwich and Finland and presented at numerous workshops and conferences.
6. commissioned ten review essays for publication in an edited volume on marketization and neoliberal restructuring in Europe.
7. submitted three articles to top journals, one of which has been accepted for publication.
The next steps will be to collect the rest of the data, analyze the data, complete the commissioning of review essays, present the findings at conferences and workshops, and publish a series of books and articles. We are working with trade unionists and other activists across Europe to turn what we have learned into something useful for people outside of academia.
For more updates follow our blog (marketizationineurope.wordpress.com) 'like' our Facebook page (Marketization in Europe), or follow the PI on twitter (@Prof_IC_Greer).
The TEMS project asks whether there is a link between marketization and growing inequality, and if so what its nature of this link is. What aspects of market competition matter for the power of workers and the poor? How does marketization affect the institutionalized protections these groups have from the market? How do corporate profit-making strategies co-evolve with changes in transactions? Is marketization leading to the rise of a chronically low-income, insecure, and disenfranchised group that could be called the precariat?
To answer these questions we use case studies of particular sectors and occupational groups from a variety of European countries. These are constructed using qualitative interviews and then subjected to a rigorous coding and comparative-analytic procedure.
The project runs from January 2013 to December 2016. In the first two years we have:
1. assembled a team that includes Ian Greer, Maria Mantynen, Lefteris Kretsos, Barbara Samaluk, Shanaz Sumra, and Charles Umney,
2. selected four workplace contexts in which to study these questions: social work, freelance musicians, hospitals, and ports.
3. selected four countries in which to study them – France, Slovenia, Greece, and Finland – plus selected UK cases.
4. conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 100 policymakers, managers, campaigners, and workers in these countries and at the European level in Brussels.
5. organized conferences in Greenwich and Finland and presented at numerous workshops and conferences.
6. commissioned ten review essays for publication in an edited volume on marketization and neoliberal restructuring in Europe.
7. submitted three articles to top journals, one of which has been accepted for publication.
The next steps will be to collect the rest of the data, analyze the data, complete the commissioning of review essays, present the findings at conferences and workshops, and publish a series of books and articles. We are working with trade unionists and other activists across Europe to turn what we have learned into something useful for people outside of academia.
For more updates follow our blog (marketizationineurope.wordpress.com) 'like' our Facebook page (Marketization in Europe), or follow the PI on twitter (@Prof_IC_Greer).