The background for the international research conference "Health Hazards and Challenges in the New Working Life" was the emerging questions concerning the health and social effects of the rapid changes in the labour market leading to increasing long-term unemployment, temporary employment and irregular employment contracts. We knew that other countries have had this development at the labour market for a much longer time than Sweden has and it seemed a good idea to invite interested researchers and practitioners to an international seminar to share the relevant research findings and discuss future research needs. Thus, the first international, interdisciplinary research conference on "Health Hazards and Challenges in the New Working Life" was arranged in Stockholm during the last year of the 2nd millennium but was directed towards the foreseen development during the next millennium. We were very pleased that more than 200 participants came to a cold and dark country just after New Year's Eve, and that it was a truly multidisciplinary setting. It became very obvious that it is necessary for the occupational health and safety research community to reach out to the public health research community as well as to the social and political sciences in order to understand the determinants and to perform comprehensive analyses at several levels in this new labour market situation.

Inhalt

Preface. Introduction. Part 1: Unemployment and Downsizing. Opening address; M. Jahoda. A social scientist for and in the real world: An introduction to the address by professor Marie Jahoda; D. Fryer. Unemployment and Mental Health: Hazards and Challenges of Psychology in the community; D. Fryer. Unemployment and Health Care Utilization; A. Kraut, et al. Unemployment and Social Networks among young persons in Sweden; U. Arnell-Gustafsson. On Empowerment and Health Effects of Temporary Alternative Employment; H. Westerlund. Empowerment, Learning and Social Action during Unemployment; L. Levi. Repeated Downsizing: Attitudes and Well-being for Surviving Personnel in A Swedish Retail Company; K. Isaksson, et al. Part 2: Flexibilization and Stress. Work Life and organizational Changes and how they are Perceived by the employees; A. Härenstam, et al. Enclosure in Human Services: The Panopticon of Dentistry; E. Bejerot, B. Söderfeldt. The Impact of Organizational Changes of the Psychological Contract and Attitudes towards Work in Four Health Care Organizations; R. Schalk, C. Freese. Alternative Work Arrangement: Job Stress, Well-being and Work Attitudes among Employees with Different Emplyment Contracts; M. Sverke, et al. Telework in Perspective - New Challenges to Occupational Health and Safety; M. Ertel, et al. The Relationship between Precarious Employment and Patterns of Occupational Violence: Survey Evidence from Seven Occupations; C. Mayhew, M. Quinlan. New Working Time Arrangements, Performance and Health; T. Åkerstedt, et al. Determinants of the Attitudes to Work and Subjective Health; G. Kecklund, et al. Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization and Health in Two Swedish Human Service Organizations; M. Söderfeldt.Part 3: Opportunities and Constraints in the Labour Market. The Polarization of the Labour Market and Exclusion of Vulnerable Groups; D. Gallie. The Quality of Work: The Work-Family Interface; R. Schouteten, M. de Witte. From School to Work in The 1970s, 1980s and 1990s of Early School Leavers; Å. Murray. Work Values and Early Work Socialisation among Nurses and Engineers; T. Hagström, A. Kjellberg. Occupational Hazards in the Informal Sector-A Global Perspective; R. Loewenson. Index.