Description
The response to job loss due to industrial restructuring is a key societal and policy challenge. Tripartite support programs and Active Labour Market Policies have had celebrated success in short term responses to labour market re-entry; however, less is known about the longer term consequences of restructuring for individuals and families affected by job loss, and thus the effectiveness of restructuring support viewed over the longer term. The purpose of the study is to identify mechanisms that explain successful post-restructuring transitions, viewed 7-10 years after the restructuring event. Earlier studies have focused on the effects for displaced workers at the point of termination or tracked statistics on labour force destinations. Little is known about how interaction with support provision, and other social structures, contributes to transitions to jobs, retirement and alternate activities.
Research will be based on the steel industry, which has experienced a major degree of restructuring, and contributes to a comparative project involving the UK and Australia. The study will use work-life biographical interviews to track the longer term experiences of displaced workers, purposively sampled by age and gender. Analysis will be extended beyond the individual by the inclusion of partners/spouses, to gain insight into the impact of restructuring on families/households and their role in transitions. Focus groups, documentary evidence and semi-structured expert informant interviews with key labour market actors will also be utilised.
The role of labour market actors will be explored using institutional theory in relation to restructuring regimes. Individual worker trajectories will be analysed using life course theory. Combining these theoretical frameworks will bridge the examination of the respective, and complementary, roles of formal labour market institutions with other social structures, notably family, social networks and occupational community.
Financiers
Selected publications
. Strategic, episodic and truncated orientations to planning in post-redundancy career transitions, Human Relations, 2024, 1-31. Artikel: refereegranskat.
. Variation in the nature of occupational communities and their role in the navigation of post-redundancy transitions in the Swedish, British and Australian steel industries, 2023. Konferensbidrag: refereegranskat.
Rydell A, MacKenzie R, McLachlan C J, Ahlstrand R, and Hobbins J (2024) Displaced steel workers long-term experiences of support during and after job loss. Abstract accepted by British Universities Industrial Relations Association Annual Conference, Queen Mary University of London, 17-19 July 2024.
Ahlstrand R, Hobbins J, MacKenzie R, McLachlan C J, O’Brien M, Rydell A and Stuart M (2023) Variation in the nature of occupational communities and their role in the navigation of post-redundancy transitions in the Swedish, British and Australian steel industries. Paper presented at Work, Employment and Society Conference, Glasgow, UK, 13-15 September 2023. Draft in progress for submission to Work and Occupations.
Ahlstrand R, Hobbins J, MacKenzie R, McLachlan C J, O’Brien M, Rydell A and Stuart M (2022) Varying orientations to collectivism in the wake of steel industry restructuring in the UK and Sweden. Paper presented at British Universities Industrial Relations Association Annual Conference, University of Birmingham, UK, 28-30 June 2022. Draft in progress for submission to Sociology.
Ahlstrand R, Hobbins J, MacKenzie R, McLachlan C J, O’Brien M, Rydell A and Stuart M (2022) Post-redundancy transitions and sustainable working lives. Paper presented at International Labour Process Conference, Padua, Italy, 21-23 April 2022. Paper in planning for submission to Work, Employment and Society.
Ahlstrand R, Hobbins J, MacKenzie R, McLachlan C J, O’Brien M, Rydell A and Stuart M. (2021) Analysing 'Regimes of Restructuring' Between Two Crises: A Comparison of Sweden and the UK. Paper presented at the 19 International Labour and Employment Relations Association World Congress. Lund University, Sweden, 21-24 June 2021. Draft under review at European Journal of Industrial Relations (Revise and resubmit decision received).
McLachlan C J, MacKenzie R, Ahlstrand R, Rydell A, Hobbins J and Stuart M. (2021) Collectivism after collectivism: Varying orientations to collectivism in the wake of steel industry restructuring in the UK and Sweden. Paper presented at International Labour Process Conference, University of Greenwich, UK, 12-14 April 2021. See above: draft in progress for submission to Sociology.
McLachlan C J, MacKenzie R, Rydell A, Ahlstrand R, Hobbins J, O’Brien M and Frino B (2022) Restructuring, policy and practice: An international comparison of approaches. In: Martinez Lucio M and MacKenzie R (eds) International Human Resource Management: The Transformation of Work in a Global Context. London: Sage, 254–274.