Why do working lives become unequal? Studies on unemployment, careers and work inequalities

Abstract

In contemporary industrial societies, labour markets are central locations of the generation of social inequality. While pre-existing social inequalities influence the opportunity structure of labour markets, labour markets encode present inequalities in terms of income, working conditions, unemployment risks or chances for career advancement into cumulative dis-/advantages and persisting, durable inequalities over the life course. The last decades have seen a considerable rise in the inequality of wages and working conditions in the (post-) industrialized countries. For this reason, the dissertation investigates three crucial and interrelated aspects of social inequalities at labour markets: work inequalities, unemployment, and careers. To improve the understanding of the generation of inequalities in working lives, it develops and applies concepts and methods from life course research. The dissertation aims to demonstrate how individual careers and life courses are embedded in the history of institutions from labour markets and social policies.