Abstract
A conjuncture of global, economic and political forces is dramatically transforming labour markets. Employees are expected to work longer hours and have to offer a high level of flexibility. Moreover, these on-going macro processes call into question conventional ideas about jobs and careers. The combination of these labour-market changes and contemporary austerity policies renders it imperative to examine their impact on individual work–life trajectories and health. Although other books have already touched on similar themes (e.g. Navarro and Muntaner, 2014), Vuori, Blonk and Price offer a specific and original focus in their edited volume Sustainable Working Lives. By assembling 15 contributions from different disciplines (e.g. organizational psychology, labour economics and labour-market sociology), they manage to pinpoint research gaps and best practices for intervention, in order to promote the development of sustainable careers and healthy working lives.
The book is organized around five critical career transitions throughout the life course. Although the five parts each discuss different aspects of the working life, they share a focus on specific and practical interventions based on case studies in order to achieve sustainable working lives. The first part provides three different perspectives on on-going changes in current labour markets, and is the only part with both a general and a descriptive focus. The first chapter by Richard Price can be seen as a general introduction, and describes global changes, their influence on work and the connections of the latter with health. The second chapter by Simo Mannila is also worth a special mention, as it is the only one that sheds light on labour-market processes in developing countries, with specific attention paid to informal employment. The second part focuses on school-to-work transitions. The antecedents and necessary elements for a good and durable start to working life are presented in three chapters. In the third part, again three chapters disentangle the relationship between job insecurity, and health and well-being. In comparison with the other parts, this one takes the most cross-national view. The fourth part concentrates on the consequences of job loss and unemployment on health, and pays much attention to the employability of individuals. In the fifth and final part of the book, the focus is on how to prevent early retirement and promote health and job retention for older employees. The volume ends with a general discussion about future policies, practice and scientific research.
In every part, different practical interventions are presented, ranging from group interventions to increase career choice preparedness, to ways to promote older workers’ job retention by influencing working hours. Most of the chapters share a focus on individual-level interventions developed to strengthen and sustain a person’s employability. However, there is less attention paid to the opportunities an employee has to capitalize acquired skills in different environments. Will different groups of employees be able to use new skills in the same way? Are all organizations keen on creating opportunities that will only increase productivity in the long term? A multi-organizational perspective studying the outcomes of interventions in different organizational settings (sector, organizational climate, etc.) for different groups of employees (not only different in relation to age, but also to gender, ethnicity or disability) would have been a valuable addition.
This, however, does not diminish the relevance of the volume. One of its main strengths is its critical approach to the concepts and paradigms generally employed in literature about the working life. Throughout the book, there is a discussion of the concept of a career, and the editors indicate the importance of using a wider definition, which pays attention to the work–life balance and broader processes in life. This brings new elements to an old discussion. In the light of healthy and productive careers, much emphasis is placed on the need for more longitudinal and interventional research that starts from a life-course perspective. This is a fruitful approach, as it takes into account the cumulative effect of different transitions employees experience in an increasingly volatile work environment.
The volume promises to be a valuable resource for students in need of a general introduction to current labour-market transformations, and provides an extensive literature review of various aspects of working life. Most chapters commence with a presentation of the main concepts and provide sufficient background references and literature. As with most other edited volumes, this also means that some repetition exists. However, at the macro level it provides insight into what changes are occurring and how these affect current labour-market relations, employment and work conditions. At the micro level, it also functions as a valuable gateway for policymakers and organizations towards evidence-based interventions, with a focus on sustainable employment relations and healthy workers.