Trade unions have been charged with neglecting labour market ‘outsiders’, while alternative actors have emerged to represent these. In response, unions have stepped up their claim to be representative of all workers, without distinction. We review the theoretical and policy debates on this issue, and argue that representation as such has been under-theorized. We draw on Saward’s concept of ‘representative claims’ to analyse the different grounds for competing assertions of representativeness. We identify four main forms of claims, and illustrate these with empirical examples. We conclude that these different claims are mutually reinforcing in stimulating attention to the outsiders, and in their interaction with institutional settings, they have a performative effect in defining new social actors.

中文翻译：

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欧洲的工会和平民化：代表主张

工会被指控忽视劳动力市场的“局外人”，而另一些参与者已经出现代表这些人。作为回应，工会不加区分地声称自己可以代表所有工人。我们回顾了有关该问题的理论和政策辩论，并认为有关代表性的理论不足。我们借鉴萨沃德的“代表性主张”的概念来分析竞争性主张主张的不同依据。我们确定了权利要求的四种主要形式，并通过经验示例加以说明。我们得出的结论是，这些不同的主张在激发人们对局外人的关注方面是相互促进的，并且在与制度环境的互动中，它们在定义新的社会行为者方面具有表现作用。