The New Insecurity: The End of the Standard Job and Family

Wallulis, professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California, describes the new insecurity resulting from two major changes: the end of the traditional job and the end of the traditional family (and marriage). His book is meant to compliment the existing literature on the subject already covered by the management and business disciplines. His basic premise is that we are moving from an "insurance" state, where our basic security was protected by jobs and companies, social welfare, and "till death do we part" marriages. This results in a "new insecurity." Although his discussion is from a philosophical / historical point of view (Foucault, etc.), he does devote a major portion of his book to the ideas of Bridges, Charles Handy, Robert Reich and Peter Drucker. In the case of insecurity resulting from the end of "jobs", the concepts he discusses (e.g., "employability vs. employment", multiskilled workers, reliance on self rather than on companies or employers) is strikingly similar to those being discussed by contemporary thinkers in the management, business, economics and organizational behavior disciplines.