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Youth disengagement is widespread in the less developed regions of advanced capitalism, and precarity is constantly (re)produced in the youth labour markets there. In this context, 'diverse economies' such as the social economy (SE) and the digital platform-induced sharing economy (DPSE) have emerged as policy solutions to pressing social, economic and environmental challenges, particularly in the south of the EU. However, most relevant studies examine labour in these new economies without considering the socio-spatial and political factors at play. This article proposes a spatially sensitive conceptualization of the relationship between youth disengagement and employment in the SE and DPSE. Drawing on key concepts from critical geography and geographical political economy, as well as recent research on the spatiality of youth, the article suggests that contemporary 'precarious youthspaces of work' are created by—and embedded in—'dismantled techno-spatial fixes' and discusses the reciprocal relationship between such youthspaces and diverse economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the economic crisis of 2008/2009, the European Union developed the Youth Guarantee (YG) Action Plan to tackle youth labour market disengagement by 'fostering employability' and 'removing barriers' to employment. The current study adopts a Geographical Political Economy approach to analysing the YG's underpinnings and the conditions that differentiate its application on a regional level to explore whether – and, if so, how – the YG helps young people in the Southern EU to enter the labour market. The article introduces the first comparative, cross-regional investigation of the YG programme, targeting the NUTS-II regions of Spain and Italy. It uses mixed methods, supplementing quantitative analysis with in-depth interviews with key informants. We show that in Spanish and Italian regions the YG is closely entwined with socio-spatial inequality and labour precarity, which is reflected in the growing rates of temporary employment and inactive youth. Crucially, we conclude, such outcomes are not simply the result of the institutional/operational misapplications of the YG, as is often assumed. Rather, these misapplications are systematically reinforced by the mechanics of labour flexibilisation within a recessionary and crisis-prone environment, one whose geographical unevenness means that the YG is playing out in quite different ways in different places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between young individuals that are Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs) and regional resilience across the Mediterranean European Union South. It attempts a significant contribution to the literature since academic readings on youth studies have partly overlooked potential interlinkages with regional resilience, while regional studies have neglected to assess the resilience of the young cohorts of the labour force. The paper builds on a geographical political economy approach and employs a mixed-research method, calculating regional resistance and recovery indices and drawing upon informed expert interviews. It scrutinises labour market resilience in terms of youth employment and NEETs against the 2007/08 crisis and documents which regions have been (less) resistant to youth unemployment and inactivity. Thereupon, it locates four factors of low resilience in regional youth labour markets, namely structural deficiencies, path-dependence, labour market segmentation and informal practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts a Geographical Political Economy perspective to critically investigate how successive economic crises occurring from 2009 onwards (including the COVID-19 pandemic) affected youth labour markets in Greece, Italy, and Spain. To do so, it first calculates a Resilience Index for three youth employment types (total, part-time, and temporary employment). It then employs Shift-Share Analysis to quantify the effect of national trends, sectoral dynamism, and local characteristics upon total youth employment changes. After identifying those regions that have exhibited resilience or lack thereof and the underlying reasons for their trajectories, the paper outlines a typology of regional youth labour markets' resilience and examines their dynamics. Specifically, the paper examines the effect of path dependencies, structural deficiencies, and labour polarization on resilience outcomes, concluding that each has steered in different ways the regional youth labour markets examined towards either bouncing back shortly after recessive shocks or developing mechanisms of adaptation amidst recession. Closing, the paper discusses the role of work flexibilization in shaping resilience, finding that whilst it may contribute to coping/adaptation capacities under certain conditions it does not guarantee them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00813.x Byline: STELIOS GIALIS (1), ELEUTHERIA KARNAVOU (2) Keywords: atypical forms of employment; part-time; temporary; self-employment; Labour Inspectorates; Thessaloniki's local labour market; Greece Abstract: Abstract Post-Fordist reconstitutions in economy and society are positively related with the expansion of atypical employment. This article argues that many of the claims that an increase in atypical forms promotes less rigid labour markets rely on narrow readings of official statistics and also underestimate different local labour realities. Drawing upon case studies in Thessaloniki's Labour Inspectorates and industrial enterprises, it highlights the fact that Greek labour markets, which are already flexible enough, have been rearranged to accommodate new use patterns for atypical forms, both traditional and modern. A controversially expanding trend towards part-time and temporary work and non-agricultural self-employment is discussed. This trend is traced to trades, sectors, industries and firms that have developed distinct patterns in the exploitation of atypical employment within the context of locally constituted social and regulatory practices that interact with globalized capital accumulation procedures. The expansion of atypical employment is examined along two interpretative lines, the one focusing on the effect of recent reforms on small industrial enterprises, the other analysing post-Fordist, flexible socio-spatial restructurings. Resume Les reconstitutions post-fordistes en matiere d'economie et de societe sont bien liees a l'essor d'un emploi atypique. De nombreuses affirmations selon lesquelles une multiplication de formes atypiques favorise des marches du travail moins rigides reposent sur des lectures etriquees des statistiques officielles, tout en sous-estimant les diverses realites locales du travail. A partir d'etudes de cas issues des Inspections du travail et d'entreprises industrielles de Thessalonique, il est mis en evidence que les marches du travail grecs, deja suffisamment flexibles, ont ete remodules en fonction de nouveaux schemas d'utilisation adaptes a des formes atypiques, tant traditionnelles que modernes. Est analysee ici une tendance discutable a l'accroissement du travail temporaire, du temps partiel et de l'emploi independant non-agricole. Cette tendance est reperee dans les metiers, secteurs, industries et entreprises qui ont elabore des schemas distincts d'exploitation d'un emploi atypique dans le cadre de pratiques reglementaires et sociales etablies localement qui interagissent avec les procedures mondialisees d'accumulation du capital. L'essor d'un emploi atypique est etudie selon deux axes interpretatifs, l'un s'attachant a l'incidence des reformes recentes sur les petites entreprises industrielles, l'autre analysant les restructurations socio-spatiales flexibles post-fordistes. Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, Greece (2)Department of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Building of the Department of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece Article note: Stelios Gialis (stgialis@uth.gr), Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, Pedion Areos, GR-38334 Volos, Greece, and Eleutheria Karnavou (karnavou@topo.auth.gr), Department of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Building of the Department of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University Campus, GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.

COVID-19 is a global pandemic but has a particular geography to it, differentially affecting people and places. Here we explore its impact upon labour markets in the Mediterranean European Union (EU) countries. Our analysis is part of a collective work-in-progress monitoring the pandemic's effects upon workers since early March 2020. First we note that there is a geographical political economy to pandemics. We then scrutinise the current pandemic's spatiality and impact upon Mediterranean EU workers. Following this, we discuss how workers are responding to the pandemic and how this is remaking the geography of employment. As such, our paper represents a contribution to the ongoing development of the Labour Geography literature. Overall, we stress that workers face a variety of choices in responding to the pandemic, choices which are, of course, shaped by the geographical contexts within which workers find themselves. In deciding whether and how to act, they are playing proactive roles in shaping COVID-19's impact upon the geography of employment and emerging labour landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]