From political strategy to analytical research and back to politics, a sociological approach of ‘flexicurity'

Jean-Claude Barbier (1)

1 CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne

From a sociological perspective, ‘flexicurity' poses important problems of definition. We will test whether, if taken in sufficiently broad terms, ‘flexicurity' is susceptible to provide a broad ‘portmanteau' or macro-concept collecting present reform strategies or present designs for reforms in many countries. This has however a cost: it dispenses with much of the specific substance identified in the institutional arrangements of the two original ‘flexicurity' countries, Denmark and the Netherlands. This all-encompassing capacity of the word was illustrated in 2005-2006, when the notion was gradually integrated into the employment part of the ‘Lisbon strategy'. All said and told, the question remains whether ‘flexicurity', as a macro-concept, is worth what can be seen as a considerable loss of substance. Can the notion escape the fate of other trendy catchwords?

Mots clés: Flexicurity; labour market and social policy

Domaines: Sociologie

Jean-Claude Barbier. From political strategy to analytical research and back to politics, a sociological approach of ‘flexicurity'. Henning Jørgensen and Per Kongshøj Madsen. Flexicurity and beyond - Finding a new agenda for the European Social Model, DJØF, pp.155-188, 2007. ⟨halshs-00157430⟩