Outsiderness among young people in Europe: A fuzzy set analysis

Abstract

This paper applies fsQCA to examine the determinants of outsiderness among young people and aims to contribute to the dualisation literature. Dualisation scholars argue that the attempt to save the core manufacturing economy has been the structural driver of change, and emphasise the role of different welfare regimes to explain different degrees of dualisation. Although these scholars speak of the existence of different patterns of dualisation, they do not explain why in some countries it is mostly young labour market participants who are the outsiders. To address this puzzle, this paper criticises the rationalist-functionalist assumptions in which this literature relies and hypothesises that social conflict and deindustrialisation are necessary conditions for the outcome high levels of outsiderness among young people. The fsQCA analysis reveals two possible paths for the outcome and that social conflict and deindustrialisation are necessary for each of them. The first path combines the absence of dualisation, high employment protection, and low coordination in the industrial relations system, while the second path combines the absence of dualisation, the absence of high employment protection and liberalisation.