This is a collection of 10 essays about the effects of a flexible labour market and the notion of 'the insecure workforce'. Contributors (including Peter Turnbull and David Guest) bring a wide range of perspectives to bear on an important issue. These perspectives embrace occupational psychology, HRM, industrial relations, social policy, economics and sociology. The breadth of treatment is reflected in an intriguing list of chapter titles:

* The insecurity thesis
* Insecurity and the flexible workforce: measuring the ill-defined
* Heaven knows I'm miserable now: job insecurity in the British labour market
* Redundancy and the paradox of job insecurity
* Employment insecurity in the public services
* Gendered employment insecurity?
* Management and the insecure workforce: the search for a new psychological contract
* Trade unions and the insecure workforce
* Job insecurity, psychological well-being and family life
* Insecurity and housing consumption

Originating from a conference held at Cardiff Business School in 1997 the material is more up-to-date than this implies. It also brings in research findings from outside the UK and should have relevance for readers in other countries where flexibility has become a matter of considerable debate.

As with any book with multiple authors, the clarity and usefulness of the content varies between chapters. Nevertheless this is a valuable for measured opinions, research findings and intelligent speculation on all aspects of the flexibility debate.
 

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