European Union Discourses on Un/employment
An interdisciplinary approach to employment policy-making and organizational change
Authors
Employment is clearly one of those fields of political activity that reveal the manifold problems and difficulties accompanying the process of European integration and supranational institutionalization. In particular the conflict between supranationalists and intergovernmentalists and the degree to which member states show willingness to cooperate with each other become manifest. The Union is struggling for new employment policies that should, on the one hand, be compatible with the European model of the welfare state, and, on the other, adopt to new economic constraints. These debates are accompanied by many conflicts between different interest groups and lobbies.
This study succeeded in looking behind closed doors within the EU organizational system. Committee meetings were tape-recorded and analysed, drafts of policy papers were examined for recontextualizations and the impact of interest groups and different economic and ideological concepts on policy-making made explicit. A comparison of decision-making processes in the European Parliament and in small networks of the Commission illustrates the different argumentation patterns and discursive practices that are involved in the formation of new employment policies. The ethnographic research is accompanied by a systemic linguistic and sociological analysis of various institutional genres and political spaces.
This study succeeded in looking behind closed doors within the EU organizational system. Committee meetings were tape-recorded and analysed, drafts of policy papers were examined for recontextualizations and the impact of interest groups and different economic and ideological concepts on policy-making made explicit. A comparison of decision-making processes in the European Parliament and in small networks of the Commission illustrates the different argumentation patterns and discursive practices that are involved in the formation of new employment policies. The ethnographic research is accompanied by a systemic linguistic and sociological analysis of various institutional genres and political spaces.
[Dialogues on Work and Innovation, 12] 2000. viii, 235 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgements | p. Vi
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1. The European Union: Policy-making through organizational discursive practicesPeter Muntigl | p. 1
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2. Labor Markets, Unemployment and the Rhetoric of Globalization. Sociological and economic backgroundGilbert Weiss | p. 27
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3. Researching the European Union. Data and ethnographyGilbert Weiss | p. 51
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4. From Conflict to Consensus? The co-construction of a policy paperRuth Wodak | p. 73
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5. A Difference that Makes no Difference? Decision-making on employment in the European ParliamentGilbert Weiss | p. 115
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6. Dilemmas of Individualism and Social NecessityPeter Muntigl | p. 145
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7. Discussion: The EU Committee Regime and the Problem of Public Space. Strategies of depoliticizing unemployment and ideologizing employment policiesGilbert Weiss and Ruth Wodak | p. 185
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Appendix | p. 207
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Index | p. 233
“This struck me as a very insightful study of the policy making process in the EU which constitutes a convincing demonstration of the contribution which discourse analysis can make to researching that process. There are several aspects of this work which are I think particularly rich. First, the operationalisation of the theoretical concept of recontextualisation (developed especially by Bernstein) as a powerful analytical tool in tracing the development of policy making. Second, the analysis of globalisation as a rhetoric, and of how globalisation rhetoric figures within the policy making process particularly within the CAG, and its relationship to neoliberalism within the EU. Thirdly, the thematisation within a discourse analytical per! spective of problems of democracy and the public space. The book is a powerful synthesis of sociological, discoursal and linguistic analysis, and I think it will do much to enhance the claims of discourse analysts to have a substantive contribution to make to social scientific research.”
Norman Fairclough
“This book shows, that discourse analysis, when used in a careful and rigorous way, can contribute with convincing analysis to an area where hypercomplexity bars the way for more traditional political science methods.”
Sven Bislev, Copenhagen Business School, in the Journal of Language and Politics Vol. 3:2 (2004)
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Subjects
Linguistics
Miscellaneous
Main BIC Subject
KJM: Management & management techniques
Main BISAC Subject
BUS085000: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Organizational Behavior