There are currently two main accounts of labour markets: the mainstream labour market (MLM) account, which avoids serious analysis of social structures; and a rather unsystematic SOCIOECONOMIC account, which recognises that labour markets are embedded in social structures, but remains ambiguous vis-à-vis the nature of this embedding. Augmenting the latter with a critical-realist approach serves to reduce that ambiguity, and allows us to break completely with the idea that there are phenomena called ‘labour markets' that are embedded in other phenomena called ‘social structures'— and to move, instead, towards the realisation that labour markets just are, or are exhausted by, the very social structures that constitute them.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Applebaum, E. (1986) ‘An anthropogenic approach to labour economics’, in A. Eichner (ed.) Towards A New Economics: Essays in Post-Keynesian and Institutionalist Theory (Macmillan).
2.
Auer, P. (2001) ‘Introduction’ in Changing Labour Markets in Europe: The Role of Institutions and Policies (International Labour Office).
3.
Beynon, H., D. Grimshaw, J. Rubery & K. Ward (eds.) (2002) Managing Employment Change: The New Realities of Work (Oxford University Press).
4.
Blair, T. (2002) Reforming Our Public Services: Principles into Practice (Office of Public Services Reform).
5.
Block, F. (1990) Postindustrial Possibilities: A Critique of Economic Discourse (University of California Press).
6.
Botwinick, H. (1993) Persistent Inequalities: Wage Disparity Under Capitalist Competition (Princeton University Press).
7.
Boyer R. (1994) ‘Do labour institutions matter for economic development?’ in G. Rogers (ed.) Workers, Institutions and Economic Growth in Asia (International Institute for Labour Studies).
8.
Burchel, B., S. Deakin, J. Michie & J. Rubery (eds.) (2003) Systems of Production: Markets, Organisations and Performance (Routledge).
9.
Callaghan, G. (1997) Flexibility, Mobility and the Labour Market (Ashgate).
10.
Craig, C. et al. (1988) ‘Economic, social and political factors in the operation of the labour market’, in B. Roberts, R. Finnegan & D. Gallie (eds.) New Approaches to Economic Life: Economic Restructuring, Unemployment and the Social Division of Labour (Manchester University Press).
11.
Dex, S. (1999) Families and the Labour Market: Trends, Pressures and Policies (Joseph Rowntree Foundation).
12.
Downward, P. (2003) Applied Economics and the Critical Realist Critique (Routledge).
13.
Dunlop, J. (1944) Wage Determination Under Trade Unions (Macmillan).
14.
Elliot, R. (1991) Labour Economics: A Comparative Text (McGraw-Hill).
15.
Fevre, R. (1992) The Sociology of Labour Markets (Routledge).
16.
Figart, D. (1997) ‘Gender as more than a dummy variable: Feminist approaches to discrimination’ in Review of Social Economy, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 1–32.
17.
Figart, D., E. Mutari & M. Power (2002) Living Wages, Equal Wages: Gender & Labour Market Policies in the United States (Routledge).
18.
Fleetwood, S. (1999) ‘The inadequacy of mainstream theories of trade unions’ in Labour, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 445–80.
19.
Fleetwood, S. (1999a) Critical Realism in Economics (Routledge).
20.
Fleetwood, S. (2001) ‘Causal laws, functional relations and tendencies’ in Review of Political Economy, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 201–220.
21.
Fleetwood, S. (2001a) ‘What kind of theory is Marx's labour theory of value? A critical realist inquiry’ in Capital & Class, no. 73, 41–77; reprinted in A. Brown, S. Fleetwood & J. Roberts (eds.) (2002) Critical Realism and Marxism (Routledge).
22.
reprinted in A. Brown, S. Fleetwood & J. Roberts (eds.) (2002) ‘Why mainstream economics explains nothing at all’ in Post-Autistic Economics Review, no. 17, December.
23.
Fine, B. (1998) Labour Market Theory: A Constructive Reassessment (Routledge).
24.
Fine, B. (2003) ‘Contesting labour markets’ in A. Saad-Filho (ed.) Anti-Capitalism: A Marxist Introduction (Pluto).
25.
Fligstein, N. (2001) The Architecture of Markets: An Economic Sociology of Twenty-First Century Capitalist Societies (Princeton University Press).
26.
Folbre, N. (1994) Who Pays for the Kids? (Routledge).
27.
Gardiner, J. (1997) Gender, Care and Economics (Macmillan).
28.
Gerhart, B. & S. Rynes (2003) Compensation: Theory, Evidence and Strategic Implications (Sage).
29.
Gordon, S. (1991) The History and Philosophy of Social Science (Routledge).
30.
Granovetter, M. (1992) ‘The sociological and economic approaches to labour market analysis: A social structural view’, in M. Granovetter & R. Swedberg (eds.) The Sociology of Economic Life (Westview Press).
31.
Grimshaw, D. & J. Rubery (2004) ‘Economics and industrial relations’, in P. Ackers & A. Wilkinson (eds.) Understanding Work & Employment: Industrial Relations in Transition (Oxford University Press).
32.
Haughton, G. et al. (1993) Local Geographies of Unemployment (Avenbury).
33.
Hillard, M. & R. McIntyre (1994) ‘Is there a new institutional consensus in labour economics?’ in Journal of Economic Issues, vol. XXVIII, pp. 619–629.
34.
Hodgson, G. (1988) Economics and Institutions (Basil Blackwell).
35.
Hodgson, G. (1999) ‘Institutions and habits’ in P. O'Hara (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Political Economy, vol. 1 (Routledge).
36.
Hodgson, G. (2001) How Economics Forgot History: The Problem of Historical Specificity in Social Science (Routledge).
37.
Hudson, R. (2001) Producing Places (Guilford Press).
38.
Hyclak, T., G. Johnes & R. Thornton (2004) Fundamentals of Labor Economics (Houghton Miffiin).
39.
Jonas, A. (1995) ‘Local labour market regimes: Uneven development and the social regulation of production’ in Regional Studies, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 323–338.
40.
Kerr, C. (1977) Labour Markets and Wage Determination: The Balkanisation of Labour Markets and Other Essays (University of California Press).
41.
Lester, R. (1941) Economics of Labour (Macmillan).
42.
Lawson, T. (1997) Economics and Reality (Routledge).
43.
Lawson, T. (2003) Reorienting Economics (Routledge).
44.
Lipton, P. (1994) Inference to the Best Explanation (Routledge).
45.
Marsden, D. (1999) A Theory of Employment Systems: Micro-Foundations of Societal Diversity (Oxford University Press).
46.
Martin, R. (2000) ‘Local labour markets: Their nature, performance and regulation’, in G. Clark, M. Feldman & M. Gertler (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography (Oxford University Press).
47.
Michon, F. (1992) ‘The institutional forms of work and employment’, in A. Castro, P. Mehaut & J. RuberyInternational Integration and Labour Market Organisation (Academic Press).
48.
Olsen, W. & S. Walby (2002) The Impact of Women's Position in the Labour Market on Pay and Implications for UK Productivity (Department of Trade and Industry).
49.
Peck, J. (1996) Work Place: The Social Regulation of Labour Markets (Guilford Press).
50.
Pencavel, J. (1994) Labour Markets Under Trade Unionism: Employment, Wages and Hours (Blackwell).
51.
Picchio, A. (2000) ‘Wages as a reflection of socially embedded production and reproduction processes’ in L. Clarke et al. (eds.) The Dynamics of Wage Relations in the New Europe (Kluwer).
52.
Piore, M. (1993) ‘The social embeddedness of labour markets and cognitive processes’ in LABOUR, vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 31–8.
53.
Powel, W. & P. Di Maggio (1991) ‘Introduction’, in W. Powel and P. DiMaggio (eds.) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis (University of Chicago Press).
54.
Reynolds, L. (1951) The Structure of Labour Markets: Wages and Labour Mobility in Theory and Practice (Harper).
55.
Richards, P. (2001) Towards The Goal of Full Employment: Trends, Obstacles and Policies (International Labour Office).
56.
Rogers, G. (1994) ‘Institutional economics, development economics and labour economics’, in G. Rogers (ed.) Workers, Institutions and Economic Growth in Asia (International Institute for Labour Studies).
57.
Rubery, J. (1992) ‘Productive systems, international integration and the single European market’, in A. Castro, P. Mehaut & J. Rubery (eds.) International Integration and Labour Market Organisation (Academic).
58.
Rubery, J. (1997) ‘Wages and the labour market’ in British Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 337–366.
59.
Rubery, J. & D. Grimshaw (1998) ‘Integrating the internal and external labour markets’ in Cambridge Journal of Economics, no. 22, pp. 199–220.
60.
Rubery, J. & D. Grimshaw (2003) The Organization of Employment: An International Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan).
61.
Saint-Paul, G. (2000) The Political Economy of Labour Market Institutions (Oxford University Press).
62.
Schmid, G. (1994) ‘Equality and efficiency in the labour market: Towards a socioeconomic theory of cooperation’, in G. Schmid (ed.) Labour Market Institutions in Europe: A Socioeconomic Evaluation of Performance (M. E. Sharpe).
63.
Seccareccia, M. (1991) ‘An alternative to labour-market orthodoxy: The post-Keynesian-institutionalist view’ in Review of Political Economy, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 43–61.
64.
Segal, M. (1986) ‘Post-institutionalism in labour economics: The Forties and Fifties revisited’ in Industrial and Labour Relations Review, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 388–403.
65.
Standing, G. (1999) Global Labour Flexibility: Seeking Distributive Justice (Palgrave Macmillan).
66.
Solow, R. (1990) The Labour Market as a Social Institution (Blackwell).
67.
Storper, M. & R. Walker (1983) ‘The theory of labour and the theory of location’ in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, no. 7, pp. 1–41.
68.
Storper, M. & R. Walker (1989) The Capitalist Imperative: Territory, Technology and Industrial Growth (Basil Blackwell).
69.
Theret, B. (1994) ‘To have or to be: On the problems of the interaction between state and economy and its “solidarist” mode of regulation’ in Economy & Society, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 1–146.
70.
Tille, C. & C. Tilly (1994) ‘Capitalist work and labour markets’, in N. Smelser & R. Swedberg (eds.) The Handbook of Economic Sociology (Princeton University Press).
71.
Tille, C. & C. Tilly (1998) Work Under Capitalism (Westview Press).
72.
Villa, P. (1987) The Structuring of Labour Markets (Clarendon Press).
73.
Vogel, L. (2000) ‘Domestic labour revisited’ in Science & Society, vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 151–170.
