■ The learning agenda has become an increasingly prominent concern of
policy-makers at the level of the EU and national Member States, and is often
presented as a positive-sum issue around which industrial relations renewal can
take place. Yet the dynamics related to this in industrial relations terms are
relatively under-explored. This introductory article reviews some of the
underlying debates and sets out the main contributions of the articles in this
special issue. These show that the new politics of learning and skill poses
significant challenges for national systems of regulation, the mode of
engagement between the social actors and the capacities and capabilities needed
by the social actors to further `supply-side' industrial relations renewal.
Crouch, C.
,
Finegold, D.
and
Sako, M.
(1999) Are Skills the Answer? The Political Economy of Skill
Creation in Advanced Industrial Countries.
Oxford : Oxford University Press
.
2.
Cutler, T.
(1992) `
Vocational Training and British Economic Performance: A Further Instalment
of the British Labour Problem
', Work, Employment and Society6(2):
161—83
.
3.
European Commission
(2001) `Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a
Reality', Communication, Brussels, COM(2001) 678 [final].
4.
Falkner, G.
(1997) `Corporatist Governance and Europeanisation: No Future
in the Multi-level Game', European Integration Online Papers (EIoP)
No11; available online at:
[http://eiop.or.at/eiop/texte/1997—011a.htm ], accessed 6 May 2007.
5.
Garsten, C.
and
Jacobsson, K.
(2004) `Learning to be Employable: An Introduction', in
C. Garsten
and
K. Jacobsson
(eds) Learning to be Employable: New Agendas on Work, Responsibility and
Learning in a Globalizing World, pp.
1—22.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
.
6.
Hall, P.A.
and
Soskice, D.
(eds) (2001) Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional
Foundations of Comparative Advantage.
Oxford : Oxford University Press
.
7.
Heyes, J.
(2007) `
Training, Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining in Western Europe
', Economic and Industrial Democracy28(2):
239—58
.
8.
Huzzard, T.
,
Gregory, D.
and
Scott, R.
(eds) ( 2005) Strategic Unionism and Partnership: Boxing or
Dancing .
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
.
9.
Jessop, B.
(2002) The Future of the Capitalist State.
Cambridge: Polity Press
.
10.
Kochan, T.
(2005) Restoring the American Dream: A Working Families'
Agenda for America.
Boston, MA: MIT Press
.
11.
Leisink, P.
and
Hyman, R.
(2005) `
Introduction: The Dual Evolution of Europeanization and Varieties of Governance
', European Journal of Industrial Relations11(3):
277—88
.
12.
Lloyd, C.
(1999) `
Regulating Employment: Implications for Skill Development in the Aerospace Industry
', European Journal of Industrial Relations5(2):
163—85
.
13.
Maurice, M.
,
Sellier, F.
and
Silvestre, J.J.
(1986) The Social Foundations of Industrial Power: A
Comparison of France and Germany.
Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press
.
14.
Regini, M.
(1995) `
Firms and Institutions: The Demand for Skills and their Social Production
in Europe
', European Journal of Industrial Relations1(2):
191—202
.
15.
Streeck, W.
(1989) `
Skills and the Limits of Neo-liberalism: The Enterprise of the Future as a
Place of Learning
', Work, Employment and Society3(1):
89—104
.
16.
Streeck, W.
(1992) Social Institutions and Economic Performance.
London: Sage
.
17.
Streeck, W.
(1997) `Beneficial Constraints: On the Economic Limits of
Rational Voluntarism', in
J. Hollingsworth Rogers
and
R. Boyer
(eds) Contemporary Capitalism: The Embeddedness of Institutions,
pp. 197—221.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
.
18.
Stuart, M.
(1996) `
The Industrial Relations of Training: A Reconsideration of Training Arrangements
', Industrial Relations Journal27(3):
253—66
.
19.
Stuart, M.
and
Greenwood, I.
(2006) `National and European Policies for Lifelong Learning:
An Assessment of Developments within the Context of the European Employment
Strategy', in
M. Kuhn
and
R.G. Sultana
(eds) Homo Sapiens Europaeus? Creating the European Learning
Citizen, pp. 131—48.
New York : Peter Lang
.
