Alliances to fight poverty

Capability as a yardstick for flexicurity

Jul2

Capability as a yardstick for flexicurity. A new book from René Lehweß-Litzmann, Soziologisches Forschungsinstitut Göttingen (SOFI) Our seminar on flexicurity was introduced by René Lehweß-Litzmann. He gave us a critical reading of the European policy agenda on flexicurity. He has worked further on his introduction an published recently his dissertation. From a point of view of Capability Approach he examines the concept. The conclusion is that concepts as flexicurity misses a…

Minimum wages: a necessary claim?

Feb6

Minimum wages have re-appeared on policy agendas accros Europe and the US. There are some reasons. First, in the richer EU countries the minimum wage is seen as an attractive tool to curb the downward pressure on wages that is caused by the stream of low-wage immigration. Second, many advocates of statutory minimum wages see the as an alternative tool that could substitute collective bargaining in protecting workers against low…

Hurray for more working poor?

Dec11

Hurray for more working poor? In the US all indicators look brightly. One of the important indicators is the job growth. It looks like that economic growth now finally means job growth. But what kind of jobs have been created? This chart gives some surprising answers. The red bars indicate the loss of jobs during the last recession. The highest bar shows the loss of jobs with a high wage 21-55 dollar),…