Recently, many scholars in political science focus on the issue of inequality in democracies. One driving force behind rising inequality has been identified with the decline of standard employment relationships and the rise of atypical employment and the expansion of employment in the service sector industries.
Scholars have identified processes of dualization in the labour market, while others focus more on the effects of atypical employment as a specific socio-economic disadvantage. Dualization is understood as the differential treatment of citizens based on the employment status, thereby creating insider in stable employment relationships and outsiders in flexible insecure employment contracts.
How does the experience of insecurity in the labour market often by atypical employment affect the political participation of citizens? What are the consequences of the increase in employment relationships, which cater more towards the interests of the employers than to those of the employees, for voting behaviour?
In the seminar we will examine how atypical employment is understood, explore some of the drivers of the increase in atypical employment, but mostly focus on the literature examining the effect of atypical employment on political behaviour of citizens.
The focus of the seminar is on enabling the participants to critically review an existing body of contemporary international research published in peer-reviewed journals. Most articles rely on the analysis of quantitative data. By assessing differences in the operationalisations, the approaches, and data we will form an understanding on what the literature can actually contribute to the question on how big a problem atypical employment actually is for democratic societies and what the consequences are.
As non-marked “Studienleistung” students are required to present the research of one journal article in the seminar. As the marked assessment (“Prüfungsleistung”) participants will hand in four essays (of five pages each), each critically reviewing one research article.
The seminar is held entirely in English. It is meant as a safe space to practise the necessary skill of presenting and arguing in an academic environment in the English language. Students whishing to practise on their English are encouraged to attend.
Introduction literature:
Emmenegger, P., Häusermann, S., Palier, B., Seeleib-Kaiser, M. 2012. How we grow unequal. In: P. Emmenegger, S. Häusermann, B. Palier, M. Seeleib-Kaiser (eds.) The Age of Dualization: The Changing Face of Inequality in Deindustrializing Societies. Oxford University Press.
- Lehrende/r: Lukas Jerg