Labour market reforms and variegated trajectories within neoliberalism: Turkey and Argentina

• In Event: Work in XXI Century Latin America: Options, Challenges and Promises II

Abstract

Argentina and Turkey both experienced severe economic crises in 2001 which led to new policy orientations in their labour markets. This paper assesses labour market policy changes and continuities in these cases since the 2001 crisis. The comparative analysis will consider policies regulating individual and collective labour relations, and compensatory labour market policies that aim to control and mitigate the social and political impacts of unemployment and poverty. My paper will assess the way in which these policies have been shaped in each country by the nature and scope of the political struggles unleashed during the previous decade of neoliberal restructuring. Importantly, I will also consider the ways in which transnational processes have affected labour market policy formulations. Finally, accounting for the differences and commonalities in the trajectory of these countries after 2001 will make possible an assessment of the shifting place that labour reforms have occupied within neoliberal policy agendas.

Author

• Sumercan Bozkurt Gungen