著者

佐口 和郎

出版者

社会政策学会

雑誌

社会政策 (ISSN:18831850)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.1, no.1, pp.44-59, 2008-10-25

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It is often said that Japanese traditional institutionalism in labor studies (JTILS) isn't necessarily useful for analyzing current problems, like inequality and poverty among workers. This kind of obsolescence in JTILS is caused by two blind spots: inattention to the renewal of theories about institutions and the breaking of relations with welfare studies. In order to conquer this weakness, theories about institutions of employment and their evolution in the 20th century are reconsidered, and the nexus of employment and welfare is shown in this paper. On the basis of this reconsideration, I discuss three problems currently confronting Japanese workers and propose four hypothetical propositions: (1) The institution of employment itself is still robust in the 21st century. (2) The employment system of the last century is changing, and can be transformed flexibly. (3) The new employment system will not be legitimated without overcoming the negative side of the old employment system. (4) For JTILS, cooperation with welfare studies is indispensable to analyzing current labor problems. Lastly, I briefly address some research agendas.