Between Power and Powerlessness: Labor Unrest in Western Europe in Times of Crisis

Abstract

The article analyzes the recent wave of labor unrest in Western Europe after the 2008 financial and economic crisis. It draws theoretically on the global capitalism school and a labor power resource approach, and empirically on a database on social conflict (JenaConDa). Unlike the last cycle of contention between 1968 and 1973, the post-2008 conflicts have changed in two respects: First, the uneven and combined development of European integration has led to a spatially uneven distribution of workers’ protests. Second, in the current wave of conflict, new forms of non-institutionalized conflicts have emerged.