Contingent and Continuing Employment: Comparative National and Historical Perspectives: Symposium Overview

This symposium focuses on the comparative impact of social institutions and labor laws on both contingent and continuing employment. Presenters will apply a wide range of analytical concepts to the history and culture of five individual nations. These concepts include a diverse set of theoretical approaches aimed at understanding the web of rules governing comparative industrial and employment relations around the world. The approaches include path dependence, institutional theory, historical materialism, and post-modernism. The central strength of this symposium is its comprehensive and inclusive wide-ranging coverage of the organizational meaning of contingent or continued employment for both formal and informal employment across a diverse group of nations, a group that includes Peru, Colombia, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. Following the presentations, the presenters will engage with the audience and one another to discuss broader lessons derived from the variety of cases presented and the distinct theoretical treatments of these.