Edited by Victor Tan Chen, Sabina Pultz, and Ofer Sharone

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For details about Victor’s other books, go to the Books page.

The Handbook on Unemployment and Society explores how labor market institutions, policy regimes, and societal norms shape the experiences of unemployed people across various cultural contexts. It highlights how unemployment experiences are not usually driven by individual factors, but rather by broader structural forces.

Contributing authors demonstrate how the disconnection from secure and dignified employment can severely undermine well-being, challenge a person’s sense of purpose, and put strain on families and close relationships. Chapters examine the lived experience of job insecurity on an international scale, uncovering patterns and key institutional dynamics and investigating factors such as gender and race that continue to situate individuals in more or less advantaged positions when they confront the loss of their livelihoods. The Handbook provides suggestions for policies that could improve life for unemployed people, as well as outlining ways in which individuals and wider societies might approach this issue with greater understanding and compassion.

This interdisciplinary Handbook is a valuable resource for scholars and students in the fields of sociology, public policy, psychology, and economics. It is also greatly beneficial to those interested in understanding the social impacts of unemployment, such as policymakers and practitioners at support organizations.

The Handbook on Unemployment and Society was published by Edward Elgar Publishing.

Read the Book

Introduction: The Experience of Unemployment, in Context

Table of Contents | Contributors

Booksellers: Edward Elgar Publishing (publisher) | Google Play (ebook only) | Amazon (print only)

Praise

This essential volume offers a comprehensive exploration of unemployment across diverse global contexts. Attending to both lived experience and social structure, this scholarship shows how the profound psychological and emotional tolls of unemployment are shaped by social contexts, institutions, and policy regimes. But it’s not all doom and gloom: this marvelous collection also illuminates pathways to support and re-imagine the future of work and dignity for individuals and societies.

—Steven H. Lopez
Professor, The Ohio State University

The spread of economic precarity has placed the specter of unemployment at the very center of modern life. This volume is an indispensable resource for everyone concerned with how labor markets really work—and what happens to people when they don’t.

—Steven Vallas
Professor Emeritus, Northeastern University

Media Archive

To read op-eds and essays about unemployment and economic precarity, visit the Other Writings page. For media interviews and mentions, visit the Media Archive. For academic writings, visit the Papers page. Media professionals can get more information in the Media Kit.

Blog

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