You need to know where he's coming from. When you don't know, ask someone who should know. I still have students who confuse left with right when the arguments are well done. So, from a leftist perspective, Gidden's is reminding us that the welfare state, about which we hear so much with Welfare to Work these days, is very much the product of the dominant discourse and its constraints on the imaginary with respect to work and family. But full time jobs in the traditional work force are now supplemented to a large extent by part-time jobs, with few or no benefits.
Traditional theory accepts the dominant discourse definition of full time jobs and unemployment.
Critical, postcolonial, postmodern theories question critically the underlying assumptions we inherit from the dominant discourse. Compare Tim Wise's piece on What's Wrong with Tolerance to Giddens' deliberative democracy and civil association, at.