The labour market as an arena

Abstract

Work done in the Netherlands by researchers of the Catholic University of Tilburg (Van Wezel et al. 1976) and by the Scientific Advisory Council of the Dutch government, the Dutch ‘think tank’ (W.R.R. 1977), in their report on active and non-active members of the population, has pointed to an interesting assumption underlying much labour market policy. A segmentalist model of the working population is generally taken for granted, but this perspective is rarely extended to take in the differentiated view of work and work activities held by the workers themselves. Both reports contend that although work is still the most favoured way to earn one’s living, a growing proportion of the population does not actually work any more. In the Netherlands in 1968 there were seven active people against each non-active one, in 1975 there were only four active people against each non-active one. (Active people being those who actually participate in the labour process and who receive remuneration for doing so. Non-active persons are those persons in the total population who are not active as defined above, like the jobless, the disabled and the sick.)