Young people and dualization in Europe: a fuzzy set analysis

Abstract

This article examines the determinants of outsiderness among young people and thus contributes to the growing literature on dualization. Complementing the argument developed by Palier and Thelen—originally developed to characterize the situation in Continental Europe—we provide a new explanation to the kind of dualization (age-based) that characterizes Southern Europe, Anglo-Saxon countries and (a few) Nordic countries. High deindustrialization and social conflict are the cornerstone of the theoretical argument developed in this article. It is argued that the former reduces the share of available stable jobs and the latter brings about an uneven distribution of risk across different social groups. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we show that these two factors are crucial to explain high levels of outsiderness among young people. To complement the fsQCA analysis, a qualitative discussion is provided of three case studies (Portugal, UK and Denmark).