This book explores the flexibility of work and labor markets based on studies of the temporary staffing sector in Sweden, Great Britain, and the US. It gives an inside view of what it means to be working as a "temp," and of notions of career and community, time and space. Moreover, it shows how the flexible worker is "made up" within the wider context of increasing globalization of labor markets, and new ways of organizing and of regulating work.

This book looks at the powerful global discourse on employability in labor markets, by providing case studies of local work practices. This is key to understanding contemporary changes in the workings of labor markets and highlights changes in ideas regarding responsibility and learning. This is the first major study of the connection between the global discourse and local practices of employability and provides a valuable contribution to the workings of labor markets today.

What does 'being flexible' mean in practice? What can the move towards flexible work contracts tell us about organizational change in general and about changing forms of workplace governance and control in particular? This book engages with transforming notions of career and community at a transnational temporary agency.

This book explores the powerful global discourse of employability in labour markets and how it is expressed in local worklife practice. This is key to understanding contemporary changes in the workings of labour markets and highlights changes in ideas regarding responsibility and learning. The book shows how this discourse works, by relating empirical case studies in different sectors of wider policy aims, ideological shifts, and the discursive influences of powerful organizations, such as the EU, OECD and transnational corporations. The cases highlight the dynamics of labour market change across national boundaries and how employees in local contexts learn to deal with new expectations.