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Youth unemployment discourses in Greece and Ireland before and during the economic crisis: Moving from divergence to ‘contingent convergence’

Abstract

The article presents the debates on youth unemployment developed in Greece and Ireland by the social actors before and after the outbreak of the economic crisis. The article examines policies of actors (employers, unions, policy bodies) and analyses whether their responses fit within neoliberal, flexicurity or social Europe discourses. It looks at how youth unemployment debates are framed in two different national settings and whether institutional differences affect the convergence towards or divergence from the neoliberal discourse. The article establishes that discourses of Greek social actors are more conflictual than those in Ireland where the history of social partnership is still evident. There is also evidence of changes in policies and discourses pre- and post-crisis.

Acceptance Date Oct 3, 2014
Publication Date Aug 1, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Economic and Industrial Democracy: an international journal
Print ISSN 0143-831X
Publisher SAGE Publications
Pages 493-515
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X14550694
Keywords economic crisis, flexicurity, neoliberalism, social Europe, youth unemployment
Publisher URL http://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X14550694

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