Imre Gergely Szabó

Imre Gergely Szabó is assistant professor at Corvinus University of Budapest - Institute of Social and Political Sciences. He works in the field of comparative political economy. His research interests include the political economy of the service transition in Europe, with a focus on public service employment relations.

The project

Title: When is polarization not a predicament? The politics of skills and labor in public services across Europe

"Public services are expanding sources of employment in advanced economies. As of 2024, labor-intensive public services (education, human health and social work) provided jobs to 38.8 million people in the EU; 8 million more than all manufacturing activities combined. What is the impact of rising public service employment on labor market polarization? While the service transition in general is associated with increasing polarization, public services are often viewed in the literature as a moderating factor on this trend (Iversen and Wren 1998, Wren et al. 2013). The aim of my paper is to revisit this thesis by taking diversity within public services seriously. I look at how different occupational groups, employers and the state navigate conflicts around wages, skills and service standards in health- and elder care in Germany and Hungary, focusing on two pairs of occupational groups: one pair in a hospital setting (medical doctors and nursing professionals), the other in an elderly care setting (nurses and elderly care assistants). This paper builds on my previous work on labor conflicts in public services across Europe and brings in more explicitly the politics of skills and competence boundaries."

Selective Bibliography

• Szabó, I. G.. (2024). The Transformation of Discontent: Labor Protest in Healthcare and Education Across Europe. 1st ed. Oxford: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
• Šćepanović, Vera, and Imre G. Szabó. (2026). The Return of Industrial Policy in the EU: A Chance for Central and Eastern Europe? JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies: jcms.70111.
• Szabó, I. G. (2022). Professionals on the Road to Contention: Social Movement Unionism in Healthcare Labour Disputes across Europe. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 43 (1), 410–430.
• Golden, D., Szabó, I. G. and Erne, R. (2025). Commodifying Public Utilities: EU's New Governance Prescriptions for Rail and Water.  Governance, 38(1)
• Trif, A. and Szabó, I. G. (2023). Where to Find Power Resources under a Hostile Government? The Prospects for Trade Union Revitalization after the Loss of Institutional Resources in Hungary and Romania. European Journal of Industrial Relations (EJIR), 29 (1) 25-42.