‘EMPLOYABILITY AND LABOUR MARKET POLICY IN EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE’

REGIONAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION WORKING GROUP ON
‘EMPLOYABILITY AND LABOUR MARKET POLICY IN EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE’


CALL FOR PAPERS: SECOND SEMINAR

FACULTY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE, MADRID, SPAIN


FRIDAY 7th MARCH 2008


ABOUT THE WORKING GROUP



The Regional Studies Association (RSA) Working Group on ‘Employability and Labour Market Policy in European Perspective’ seeks to bring together UK researchers with European colleagues to discuss the local and regional dimensions of labour market disadvantage and the employability policy agenda in European states. A successful first seminar, drawing participants from eight countries, was held at the Employment Research Institute, Napier University, Edinburgh during October 2007.



This call for papers relates to a second seminar to be held at Complutense University, Madrid. Together, these two international seminars seek to build upon the success of a previous ‘Employability and Labour Market Policy’ seminar series (co-funded by the RSA) organised by Napier University, Warwick University, and Paisley University in 2003-4 (findings were published in a February 2005 special edition of Urban Studies journal). It is hoped that findings from the 2007-8 seminar series will lead to similar publications.



BACKGROUND


The second seminar of the RSA Working Group on ‘Employability and Labour Market Policy in European Perspective’ will be held at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain, Friday 7th March 2008. This seminar will focus on the local and regional dimensions of labour market disadvantage and the employability policy agenda in European states. Comparative (cross-national or cross-regional) papers would be particularly welcome, but national or regional case studies will also be considered. Colleagues who participated in the first seminar in Edinburgh in October 2007 are encouraged to attend and/or contribute a paper, but new participants would also be very welcome.



The seminar is targeted at researchers interested in employability and labour market issues, drawing on specific local or regional contexts, and with a strong emphasis on lessons for and from policy. Papers addressing the policy implications of, and/or policy responses to, any of the following issues would be particularly welcome:

· changes in local/regional labour demand and implications for employability;

· spatial concentrations of unemployment and labour market disadvantage;

· barriers to employability and social inclusion in urban/rural labour markets;

· local and regional responses to the ‘flexicurity’ agenda;

· implementing the EES at the local and regional level – governance and strategies in labour market policy;

· factors affecting the recovery and/or continued disadvantage of areas affected by industrial decline, and implications for employability.


THE SEMINAR



The seminar format will involve seven presenters each delivering an extended paper, followed by discussion (i.e. seven sessions, each of 50-60 minutes duration).

· Abstracts (maximum 250 words) should be e-mailed to Colin Lindsay at the address below no later than Friday 21st December 2007.

· Notifications of acceptance of abstracts will be sent no later than Wednesday 9th January 2008.

· The seminar to take place at Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain, on Friday 7th March 2008.

Abstracts to:

Colin Lindsay

Employment Research Institute

Napier University

Edinburgh EH14 1DJ

United Kingdom

E-mail: c.lindsay@napier.ac.uk