Abstract

This essay critically reviews both the main debates on the history of labor market regimes and the fundamental variables used in their study from a socioeconomical and historical perspective. It raises a theory for the analysis of labor market regimes in “peripheral” societies also presenting debates on labor market regimes in the “central core” of capitalist societies. We compare particularities and similarities between urban/industrial and rural/agrarian societies within a capitalist framework -we also present different theoretical perspectives to the study of these phenomena-. Moreover, we use the Costa Rican case in Central America to illustrate some aspects of our theoretical proposal.

Keywords: employment; productive structure; socio-occupational structure; historical institutionalism; transnationalism; labor law