This article contributes to the debates over the development of solidarity among a fragmented workforce by discussing the case of a strike in which the technicians and contractors at Movistar in Spain were involved. The strike involved employees and self-employed workers working for different contractors. The results highlight that ‘spontaneous’ mobilizations can help to develop a collective identity in fragmented employment systems. More concretely, they show that the lack of involvement of unions at the beginning of the strike helped to generate an identity involving all workers that was not based on occupational or contractual status. However, the findings also highlight that the later involvement of independent unions, which respected the assembling of workers as a space of decision, was key to the sustainment of the collective identity. Furthermore, the results show that mobilizing can be a strong organizing tool in contexts characterized by weak institutional regulation, fragmentation and precarious working conditions.

This article discusses the effect of neoliberal trends in employment regulation during the 2008 recession. Liberalization in employment institutions is a long-term trend reinforced by the implementation of austerity policies. I use EU-SILC panel data to discuss these trends in Spain, Italy and the UK in three periods: before the crisis (2004–2007), during the crisis (2007–2010) and under austerity (2010–2013). Although liberalization reforms interacted with the existing institutional architectures, I find a common trend towards greater employer discretion. Crucially, this trend in institutional outcomes appears in countries with different formal institutional characteristics in employment and collective bargaining.

Using a mixed methods approach this article investigates the impact of the financial crisis and austerity on women's employment and life chances in Spain and the UK through tracking women's changing labour market transitions and exploring women's responses to disrupted employment paths. Women's experiences were found to be strongly influenced by the different employment and social models and the specific austerity policies. In Spain women faced increases in both labour market flexibility and segmentation, involving more entrapment in unemployment and temporary jobs and declining protection within permanent contracts. In the UK women retained more access to employment but faced destabilisation of public sector employment and a strong budget squeeze from wage and benefit cuts. They were less able than women in Spain to draw on both family support and unemployment benefits to reorient their careers but in both countries women were resisting employment changes and reaffirming their commitment to employment.

El objetivo de la nota de investigación es mostrar en qué medida es posiblehablar en España de la existencia de trayectorias laborales permanentementeprecarias o discontinuas, más allá del conocido efecto edad. Apartir de las variables disponibles para el período 2001-2006 del Panel deDesigualdades de la Fundació Jaume Bofi ll se ha desarrollado un análisisde conglomerados combinado con un análisis de regresión logística. Losresultados de este análisis muestran que el género y la edad se encuentranentre las variables más importantes a la hora de determinar los itinerariosprecarios. Los resultados también parecer indicar la existencia deuna ruptura generacional en las trayectorias laborales, aunque la escasalongitud de las series disponibles no permite afi rmar que esta ruptura seaextensible a cualquier tipo de perfi l social.

Over the past 20 years, the social protection measures devoted to unemployed people in Europe have become more diverse. In an attempt to complement or curb cash transfers, many countries have put measures, services in kind and activation policies at the centre of social protection against unemployment. This article compares two countries with different policies: Spain, which still has very ‘traditional’ unemployment support with little emphasis on activation, and Germany, where there has in recent years been rapid change towards activation measures. The article evaluates these policies and their consequences on the unemployed by means of the capability model, investigating comparatively the effects of institutional intervention on the real set of options available to the unemployed in finding a decent job or pursuing training or other activities. The authors argue that cash transfers can increase capabilities ‘by default’, whereas more intervention-oriented public employment services need to give unemployed workers an active part in ‘tailoring’ supports to their needs. En Europe, au cours de ces 20 dernières années, les mesures de protection sociale destinées aux chômeurs ont connu une diversification croissante. Pour tenter de compléter ou de réduire les transferts d’argent, de nombreux pays ont placé des mesures, des services en nature et des politiques d’activation au coeur de la protection sociale contre le chômage. Cet article compare deux pays menant des politiques différentes: l’Espagne, qui connaît toujours un soutien très « traditionnel » en faveur des chômeurs et met peu l’accent sur l’activation, et l’Allemagne, qui a connu ces dernières années un changement rapide en faveur des mesures d’activation. L’article évalue ces politiques et leurs conséquences sur les chômeurs au moyen du modèle des capacités, en étudiant dans une perspective comparative les effets de l’intervention institutionnelle sur l’éventail des options réellement disponibles aux chômeurs pour trouver un emploi décent, pour suivre une formation ou pour mener d’autres activités. Les auteurs indiquent que les transferts d’argent peuvent accroître les capacités « par défaut » alors que les services publics de l’emploi davantage axés sur l’orientation doivent donner aux travailleurs sans emploi un rôle actif pour que les soutiens apportés soient davantage « taillés sur mesure », en fonction de leurs besoins. In den vergangenen zwanzig Jahren haben sich die sozialen Sicherungen für Arbeitslose in Europa ausdifferenziert. Um Geldleistungen zu ergänzen oder zu beschneiden, haben viele Staaten Dienstleistungen und Aktivierungsmaßnahmen in den Mittelpunkt der sozialen Sicherung bei Arbeitslosigkeit gestellt. Dieser Artikel vergleicht zwei Länder, deren politische Strategien sich unterscheiden: Spanien erbringt vor allem “traditionelle” Lohnersatzleistungen und verfolgt kaum aktivierende Ansätze, wogegen Deutschland in den letzten Jahren rasch auf einen Aktivierungskurs einschwenkte. Dieser Artikel nutzt das Modell der Verwirklichungschancen (“capabilities”), um diese politischen Strategien und ihre Wirkungen für die Arbeitslosen zu evaluieren. Er untersucht vergleichend, wie die institutionellen Interventionen sich auf die Bündel wirklicher Optionen auswirken, über die Arbeitslose verfügen, um eine angemessene Stelle zu finden, sich beruflich weiterzubilden oder anderen Aktivitäten nachzugehen. Der Autorin und den Autoren zufolge können Lohnersatzleistungen als “hilfsweise” chancenfreundlich gelten. Eine stärker auf Intervention orientierte Arbeitsverwaltung müsste jedoch Arbeitsuchende aktiver daran beteiligen, Unterstützungsleistungen “passgenau” an ihren Bedarfen auszurichten.