The Bumpy Road of the Externally Transferred Austerity Agenda in Albania and Its Fragmentary Effects on Local Public Services

Dizdari, Visar; Troshani, Arjeta; Drishti, Elvisa

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-76225-8_9

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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Section: The Labour Market In Albania and Career Transitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the economy has since been hampered by macroeconomic imbalances in public services and rising unemployment and poverty which have contributed to declining growth. A post-2013 austerity agenda in Albania was instigated to meet the many pre-conditions for EU membership (Dizdari et al, 2019). In line with the EU compliance agenda, reforms, implemented after 2014, rapidly implemented labour market "flexicurity" (MSWY, 2014;World Bank, 2018) resulting in increased prevalence of more precarious employment arrangements.…”

Section: The Labour Market In Albania and Career Transitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dead-end jobs or steppingstones? Precarious work in Albania

Drishti

Carmichael

2022

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Purpose This study asks whether lower quality forms of employment lead to career transitions into higher quality forms of employment acting as steppingstones, or bridges or, whether instead they lead to dead-ends, or traps, in which workers move between unstable jobs with low prospects for upward mobility and unemployment.Design/methodology/approach This study uses a unique longitudinal dataset recording monthly employment states over 3 years for 373 individuals in the Albanian city of Shkoder. The analysis uses sequence and regression analysis to investigate whether people employed in lower quality, more precarious jobs remain in these kinds of jobs or instead are able to transition into higher quality, permanent and full-time employment.Findings In line with previous evidence for the region, the analysis confirms the precarization of many working lives particularly for women, young people and those with lower educational attainment. This evidence is more supportive of the dead-end hypothesis than the idea that a lower quality job can be a steppingstone into a better job.Originality/value This study contributes to the limited knowledge of labour market functioning in developing post-socialist Western Balkans countries. Recent flexicurity policies have generated an increased prevalence of more precarious employment arrangements in Albania. This investigation addresses previous research limitations regarding point-in-time transitions and unobserved heterogeneity using retrospective longitudinal data and controlling for personality traits.

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Section: The Labour Market In Albania and Career Transitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Labour Market In Albania and Career Transitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dead-end jobs or steppingstones? Precarious work in Albania

Drishti

Carmichael

2022

Self Cite

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“…The creation of a social policy system in Albania is rather recent (Pere and Bartlett 2019). Its functioning has been newly affected by a new lawmaking on territorial decentralization that is going to profoundly affect the distribution of responsibilities in the delivery of Social Services (Dauti, 2015;Dizdari, Troshani & Drishti, 2019).…”

Section: Albania As a Crucial Casementioning

confidence: 99%

Higher Education Training in social work in Albania: insights from the experiences of the T@sk project. EASSW 2019 Conference paper

Mascagni¹,

Mascagni²

2020

Cuad. Trab. Soc.

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In March 2020, the European Union decided to open accession negotiations with Albania, candidate country since 2014. In order to achieve this important goal in the long path of European integration, Albania had to pursue a set of requirements. Among them, the centrality of human rights affects the implementation of policies aiming at integrating minorities, as well as at granting social rights to unprivileged citizens (La Cava Nanetti 2000, Solidar 2016). In this scenario, the evolution of the professional expertise of Albanian Social workers plays a relevant role. In academic and professional terms, social work has a poor tradition in Albania, as in most of post-communist countries (Hoti 2015). In order to face the difficulties of the professional and academic evolution of social work and to facilitate a process of Europeanisation of the Social Services delivery in Albania, the European Commission has funded the project T@sk Towards Increased Awareness, Responsibility and Shared Quality in Social Work (2017-2020). The main aim of the project consists in strengthening the delivery of Social Services in Albania through the empowerment of the Higher Education system in social work. The consortium includes all public universities offering BA and MA courses in social work in Albania – University of Tirana, University of Shkoder and University of Elbasan-, and the University of Florence, the UCM of Madrid, the ISCTE of Lisbon and the Professional Order of Social workers of the Tuscany Region as Higher Education institutions of the program countries. The project operates at three levels: peer-to peer theoretical and empirical update amongst the project partners; triangulation of knowledge, transdisciplinary cooperation with the societal stakeholders and digital innovation; selection and dissemination of best practices. The project is in its final stage, and it is possible to elaborate on the main theoretical and empirical framework adopted, on the results achieved, and on the challenges to create a favorable environment for the development of social work profession in Albania. The article attempts to shed some light in the pattern of evolution of social work practices in Albania, focusing on the social and cultural background of the country, and describing the main achievements of the T@sk project.

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Cross-national Comparison of Job Types: Analysis Using the EU LFS and Albanian LFS

Drishti¹

2022

Towards Economic Inclusion in the Western Balkans

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This paper is dedicated to the cross-national comparison of the labour markets of the EU member countries and Albania. The aim is to establish whether or not cross-national variations in propensities of being hired in a non-standard job are the result of differences in national institutional regimes and labour market regulations. An adapted version of the Fraser Index is used to explain crosscountry differences in relation to the application of rigid labour market regulation. The econometric analyses indicate that the net effect of more stringent labour market regulation, increase job quality in different senses: in less affluent transition economies, more workers use involuntary non-standard jobs as a means to escape unemployment. On the other hand, in affluent economies, interventionist policies are associated with high levels of voluntary non-standard work and low unemployment.

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The Bumpy Road of the Externally Transferred Austerity Agenda in Albania and Its Fragmentary Effects on Local Public Services

Cited by 3 publications

References 14 publications

Dead-end jobs or steppingstones? Precarious work in Albania

Dead-end jobs or steppingstones? Precarious work in Albania

Higher Education Training in social work in Albania: insights from the experiences of the T@sk project. EASSW 2019 Conference paper

Cross-national Comparison of Job Types: Analysis Using the EU LFS and Albanian LFS

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