Health Effects of the New Labour Market

The background for the international research conference “Health Hazards and Challenges in the New Working Life” was the emerging questions concerning the health and social effects of the rapid changes in the labour market leading to increasing long-term unemployment, temporary employment and irregular employment contracts. We knew that other countries have had this development at the labour market for a much longer time than Sweden has and it seemed a good idea to invite interested researchers and practitioners to an international seminar to share the relevant research findings and discuss future research needs. Thus, the first international, interdisciplinary research conference on “Health Hazards and Challenges in the New Working Life” was arranged in Stockholm during the last year of the 2nd millennium but was directed towards the foreseen development during the next millennium. We were very pleased that more than 200 participants came to a cold and dark country just after New Year's Eve, and that it was a truly multidisciplinary setting. It became very obvious that it is necessary for the occupational health and safety research community to reach out to the public health research community as well as to the social and political sciences in order to understand the determinants and to perform comprehensive analyses at several levels in this new labour market situation.

This book contains the proceedings of the First International Conference on Health Hazards and Challenges in the New Working Life, held January 11-13, 1999, in Stockholm, Sweden.
The globalisation of the economies has enormous implications for work and labour market structures. Demands for rapid adjustment and flexibility can be perceived as threatening to the employees' need for security and can cause ill health, but it is also important to try to foresee the possible benefits that could result and the constructive adaptations that individuals make. These changing conditions raise new issues and research questions concerning health consequences and people's actions and constructive adaptation. The interdisciplinary research conference in Stockholm on Health Hazards and Challenges in the New Working Life covered areas such as health and social consequences of unemployment, job insecurity, labour market constraints, flexibility in working conditions, and new forms of employment relations and contracts. The proceedings give an overview of the latest research results on these issues, which will be of the utmost importance to working life in the next millennium. The book presents a selection of contributions from highly qualified researchers in psychology, occupational health and sociology and covers three main sections: unemployment and downsizing, flexibilization and stress, and opportunities and constraints in the labour market. It provides an excellent summary and overview of earlier research, together with new findings about adaptation and actions among the unemployed, the effects of new and changing employment contracts upon health, and the polarization of the labour market and its exclusion of vulnerable groups.

Booknews

Comprises 21 papers from the First International Conference on Health Hazards and Challenges in the New Working Life (January 1999, Stockholm). The papers examine the conflicts that globalization is causingpitting the needs for rapid adjustment and flexibility against employees needs for security. The contributors come from the fields of psychology, occupational health, and sociology. Areas covered include the health and social consequences of unemployment, job insecurity, labor market constraints, flexibility in working conditions, and new forms of employment relations and contracts. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Preliminaries......Page 1 CONTENTS......Page 12 Opening Address......Page 24 A Social Scientist for and in the Real World......Page 26 Unemployment and Mental Health......Page 32 Unemployment and Health Care Utilization......Page 46 Unemployment and Social Networks among Young Persons in Sweden......Page 64 On Empowerment and Health Effects of Temporary Alternative Em-ployment......Page 82 Empowerment, Learning and Social Action during Unemployment......Page 96 Repeated Downsizing......Page 106 Work Life and organizational Changes and how they are Perceived by the Employees......Page 126 Enclosure in Human Services......Page 140 The Impact of Organizational Changes of the Psychological Contract......Page 150 Alternative Work Arrangements......Page 166 Telework in Perspective - New Challenges to Occupational Health and Safety......Page 190 The Relationship between Precarious Employment and Patterns of Occupational Violence......Page 204 New Working Time Arrangements, Health and Well-Being......Page 228 Determinants of the Attitudes to Work and Subjective Health......Page 236 Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization and Health in Two Swedish in Human Services Organization......Page 252 The Polarization of the Labour Market and Exclusion of Vulnerable Groups......Page 266 The Quality of Work......Page 288 From School to Work in The 1970s, 1980s and 1990s for Early School Leavers......Page 310 Work Values and Early Work......Page 332 Occupational Hazards in the Informal Sector-A Global Perspective......Page 350 Index......Page 364 This text is the proceedings of the First International Conference on Health Hazards and Challenges in the New Working Life, held January 11-13, 1999, in Stockholm, Sweden. The globalization of the economies has enormous implications for work and labour market structures. Demands for rapid adjustment and flexibility can be perceived as threatening to the employees' need for security and can cause ill health, but it is also important to try to foresee the possible benefits that could result and the constructive adaptations that individuals make. These changing conditions raise new issues and research questions concerning health consequences and people's actions and constructive adaptation. The interdisciplinary research conference in Stockholm on Health Hazards and Challenges in the New Working Life covered areas such as health and social consequences of unemployment, job insecurity, labour market constraints, flexibility in working conditions, and new forms of employment relations and contracts. The proceedings give an overview of the latest research results on these issues, which will be relevant to working life in the next millennium