Occupational welfare: conceptual delimitation and key variables for its development

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22325/fes/res.2020.17

Keywords:

Occupational welfare, social protection, social division of welfare, employers, conceptualization.

Abstract

The article explores two key aspects of occupational welfare (OW): its conceptualization; and the main explanatory variables behind its development. The idea of OW is examined as well as its connections and interactions with other sources of welfare provision. Four conceptual elaborations of OW are identified and compared, detailing its main differences and overlapping similarities. Second, the article synthesises the main results on OW available in the international literature, thus contributing to a better understanding of the progress of OW in Spain within the European context. The main explanatory variables for the development of occupational social protection schemes are also identified and explained in detail. The article contributes to the most recent and innovative research agenda on welfare, which conceives the architecture of post-industrial social protection systems as a changing institutional balance resulting from the combination of conventional and non-conventional sources of welfare.

Author Biographies

David Luque Balbona , Departamento de Sociología, Universidad de Oviedo. España/Spain

David Luque Balbona is Assistant Professor Doctor in the Department of Sociology of the University of Oviedo and member of the PROMEBI Research Group. His main lines of research are the strike activity, social dialogue and modernization processes of European welfare states. He has published articles in academic journals of recognized prestige both nationally (Spanish Journals of Sociological Research, International Journal of Sociology, Spanish Journal of Sociology, Policies and Society or Work Sociology) and international (Industrial Relations Journal, European Journal of Social Security o Transfer: European Review of Labor and Research). In addition, he is the author of several book chapters published by publishers such as Springer, Policy Press, Center for Sociological Research or Technos.

Sergio González Begega , Departamento de Sociología, Universidad de Oviedo. España/Spain

Sergio González Begega is a Tenured Professorin the Department of Sociology of the University of Oviedo. He is a member of the research groups PROMEBI (Uniovi), WPE and GoodCorp (ETUI) and a member of the Eurofound network of external experts. He is currently a member of the BIOCES research project and co-coordinator of the European SODITREC project. He has developed stays as a guest researcher at MBS (University of Manchester), ETUI (Brussels), CSU-CNRS (Paris) and IPP-CSIC (Madrid). His lines of research include European labor relations, social dialogue, labor conflict and comparative social policy. He is the author of book chapters published by publishers such as Oxford University Press, Routledge, Edward Elgar, Peter Lang, ETUI or Rainer Hampp Verlag, among others. He has published articles in academic journals such as Employee Relations, Economic and Industrial Democracy, Critical Perspectives on International Business, Transfer, European Journal of Social Security, REIS, RIS or RES, among others.

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Published

2020-02-04

How to Cite

Luque Balbona, D., & González Begega, S. (2020). Occupational welfare: conceptual delimitation and key variables for its development. Spanish Journal of Sociology, 29(2). https://doi.org/10.22325/fes/res.2020.17

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