Dear friends and colleagues,

With apologies for multiple postings across forums,
I am writing to invite you to the next meeting of the PhD Kenkyuukai,
hosted by the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo, from
12:15-1:30pm on Feb 22 (Wed).

The presenter will be Steffen Heinrich, a political scientist and senior
research fellow at the German Institute of Japanese Studies (DIJ) in
Tokyo. He
received a PhD in political science from Heidelberg University (Germany)
in
2013 and specializes in comparative welfare state research and labour
politics.

Speaker: *Steffen Heinrich (DIJ)*
Title: *Hidden Politics of Balancing Flexibility and Security: Labour
Market Reforms in Germany and Japan *
Time: Feb 22 (Wed), 12:15-1:30pm
Location: Rm. 307, ISS / Shaken Main Building
http://www.iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp/guide/index.html

ABSTRACT

*The hidden politics and political economy of balancing flexibility and
security: A comparison of labour market reforms in Germany and Japan*

A key objective of labour market reforms in recent years has been to
make
employment arrangements more flexible with regard to their temporal,
functional, numerical dimensions. Yet, governments are at the same time
under pressure to ensure that those in flexible jobs can enjoy an
‘adequate’ level of protection and stability. Many scholars believe
that this mirrors a fundamental regulatory dilemma for governments who
have to choose between incompatible objectives: either to enhance
employment flexibility through deregulation or to improve security
through reregulation and by decoupling work and welfare.

In contrast, this presentation argues that governments usually avoid
this dilemma by encouraging de-central adjustments instead of detailed
legislative reform. Such a strategy of delegation is particularly
feasible in coordinated market economies, such as Germany and Japan,
where institutions for economic coordination offer alternative loci of
regulation. The analysis draws from process tracings of labour market
reforms in four areas since 1990.

Kenneth Mori McElwain
Associate Professor
Institute of Social Science
University of Tokyo
www.kennethmcelwain.com
mcelwain[at]iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp