The Third Sector and Securing 'Labour Market Longevity'

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This thesis will examine the role of the third sector, and itshistorical non-governmental and non-profit-makingequivalents (NGOs), in securing the longevity of neoliberallabour market arrangements. This central research questioncontains three broad aims. Firstly, to explain the persistenceof neoliberal labour market policies in the UK today,characterised by employer-led flexibility, the drive for lowerlabour costs and acceptance of job insecurity (Rubery,Keizer, & Grimshaw, 2016). Secondly, to explore the thirdsector as quasi-state, extra-market support structure whichcontains the contradictions of neoliberal labour markets fromoutside the markets themselves. And finally, to contribute tothe conceptual development of international politicaleconomy by supplying empirical substantiation for thePolanyian claim that markets and society are neverseparate, but are continually reciprocally constructed.The role of the third sector in the modern economy remainsa topic of dispute and is rarely analysed in terms of labourmarket theory. Copious literature has investigated therelationship between the UK state and the third sector fromthe perspective of providing moral and fiscal facilitation forshrinking welfare services (Alcock & Kendall, 2011;Buckingham, 2009; Kidd, 2002; Milbourne & Cushman, 2015;Soteri-Proctor & Phillimore, 2013; Williams, Cloke, & Thomas,2012). Recently Salamon & Sokolowski (2018) explored theidea that market or state failing has contributed to theincreased importance of the third sector. Their findingshowever have been obfuscated by their overly-inclusivedefinition of the sector. Some inroads have been made intoconceptualising the sectors importance to the revitalisationof community in the midst of disruptive neoliberal policies(Fyfe, 2005). However, there remains little in the way ofdemonstrated empirical linkages between this and otherchanges in the economy. In summary, research concludesthat through generating community-led solutions to longterm social problems the third sector has relieved the UKstate of a portion of its welfare responsibilities, but how thisfits with broader fiscal and economic changes remainsunderexplored.I offer a conceptual alteration in the way the third sector isevaluated. It is yet to be asked whether the third sectorcontributes to the operation of neoliberal, self-regulatorylabour markets, wherein labour prices are set by theintersect of supply and demand (see Rubery, Keizer, &Grimshaw, 2016). This is to say, how does the third sector fitwith institutional arrangements that require rolling back statewelfare to increase labour market participation, increasingthe competition for paid employment and putting downwardpressure on wages while also disciplining those in work (Blyth,2002; Greer, 2016; Shapiro & Stiglitz, 1984)? Simply put,current neoliberal labour markets require unemployment(scarcity) and a minimal welfare state (hardship) to function,and I hypothesise the third sector plays an essential role inthe UK in stabilizing labour markets of this nature. Indeed, invarious guises, I would argue charitable organisations havehad this role for a long time.