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Is there a more popular alternative to the term 'flexibilization'?

English Language & Usage Asked on April 21, 2021

Flexibilization refers to the changing work practices by which firms no longer use internal labor markets or implicitly promise employees lifetime job security, but rather seek flexible employment relations that permit them to increase or diminish their workforce, and reassign and redeploy employees with ease.

Source: K. V. Stone, ‘Flexibilization, Globalization, and Privatization: Three Challenges to Labor Rights in Our Time,’ Osgoode Hall Law Journal 44, 77 (2006). (link)

The term is often used in other languages to characterize neoliberal changes in labor and labor policies, including the removal of social protection for workers (such as sick pay and dismissal protection). Importantly, the term flexibilization does not have the negative connotation of neoliberalism. Other than the latter, it is also used by business insiders who argue that companies need to be more flexible to be able to quickly adapt to new challenges.

2 Answers

It's hard to prove a negative, but it is very unlikely that there is a more 'popular' alternative. The term seems to be quite technical, describing a relatively precise and involved concept in sociology and economics. For highly technical and precise terms, as a rule, there will be nothing comparable in non-technical discourse.

Answered by linguisticturn on April 21, 2021

The question should perhaps have been asked on the Politics site.

But I think a term already exists - it is called provision of zero-hours contracts.

Answered by WS2 on April 21, 2021

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