Inequality in the 21st Century

The London School of Economics & Political Science

London, UK

July 02 - 04, 2015

The claim that labor market and social welfare reforms are a necessary component of competitive adjustment are a commonplace informing many European responses to the Great Recession. In its dominant form, this claim suggests that there is a common recipe that governments need to follow to secure a way out of the crisis. Together, the papers for this panel call into question the premise of this claim and offer insights regarding the range of institutional and ideational factors conditioning the structure and direction of change across Southern Europe. They also advance our understanding of the opportunities for organized labor to resist and adapt to these changes through the lens of Northern European responses to neoliberal reforms, thereby advancing academic dialogue on the question of union relevance in the shadow of austerity.