Transformation of Discontent

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A01=Imre Szabo
Author_Imre Szabo
Category=JHBL
Category=JPWG
contentious politics
employment relations
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
professional autonomy
public sector unions
public service labour mobilisation Europe
qualitative case studies
white-collar workforce

Product details

  • ISBN 9781032208381
  • Weight: 320g
  • Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
  • Publication Date: 30 Jan 2026
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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The Transformation of Discontent demonstrates that far from disappearing from the workplaces of the Global North, labor protest has merely changed character and now focuses on healthcare and education, with white-collar and white coat employees clashing with employers over wages, working conditions, and professional autonomy.

Based on in-depth case studies of protest campaigns in four European countries – Denmark, Germany, Hungary, and Ireland – this book explores the ways in which teachers, nurses, and medical doctors have developed a new repertoire of contention that unites their power to disrupt services with their duty to care for service users, such as patients, children, and older people.

A study of the changes to labor mobilization including new protagonists and a shift from mass strikes to duty-based protest, this volume considers the impact of public sector unions on the labor movement and their role in renewing labor’s power resources. It will be of interest to sociologists and scholars of political economy, social movements, public services, contentious politics, and employment relations.

Imre G. Szabó is visiting faculty at the Political Science and at the International Relations Department of Central European University, Vienna. He is the author of several peer-reviewed journal articles and co-author of Politicising Commodification: European Governance and Labour Politics from the Financial Crisis to the Covid Emergency.

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