Infinite testing: tests and critique in and below the public

2019 ◽  
pp. 187-200
Author(s):  
Magnus Paulsen Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Social Economy ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Behavioural Effect ◽  
Unemployed Person ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Unemployed ◽  
The Voice

In chapter 9 the key dynamics driving the active turn are teased out. The composite and tension-filled repertoire installs a multicausal and behavioural problematisation of unemployment where there is constant room for improvement and adjustments. At the level of public debate, this manifests in a permanent testing of policy instruments’ behavioural effect. At the level of the every-day governing of the unemployed, the tensions between the different cities of the active turn are mitigated in categorisations and various and continuous tests that evaluate the behaviour of the unemployed. The tests, such as profiling, screening, interviews and contracts, thus continuously ask what kind of subject the unemployed person is (i.e., what city do you live in?), how worthy are you and what instruments will make you more worthy, that is bring you closer to working. The chapter then points to the implications for the way in which the voice of the unemployed is qualified. The book ends with a discussion of to what extend the ideas of universal basic income and social economy/enterprises, that have received growing attention in international policy debates, contain credible alternatives to the moral economy of activation.

scholarly journals The DEA Method and its Application Possibilities for Measuring Efficiency in the Public Sector—The Case of Local Public Employment Services

Economies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Ewa Cichowicz ◽  
Ewa Rollnik-Sadowska ◽  
Monika Dędys ◽  
Maria Ekes
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Public Employment ◽  
Employment Services ◽  
The Public ◽  
Measuring Efficiency ◽  
Dea Method ◽  
The Unemployed

Public Employment Services (PES) are identified as important institutions in the process of improving the match between supply and demand in the labor market, which, despite their importance, still do not achieve the desired efficiency. The indicated problem is partly due to the lack of appropriate evaluation methods for the applied labor market policy instruments. This paper aims to verify the possibility of using the two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method in measuring the efficiency of public sector entities. The authors focused on 39 PES operating in Mazovia province, Poland in 2019. In the first stage, the model of technical efficiency of local PES included six variables (four inputs and two outputs). Only seven PES obtained full efficiency. The inefficiency of analyzed PES varied from about 1% to 80%. In the second stage, the attention focuses on the relationship between true unknown efficiency and its determinants (five environmental variables, both demand and supply oriented). Then, the regression coefficients and confidence intervals showed that three out of five variables influence the efficiency results, the share of the long-term unemployed, the share of the unemployed under 30, and the share of the unemployed over 50 in the total number of unemployed.

Création d'emplois ou déréqulation? La vocation ambiquë de l'économie sociale

2001 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Estelle Krzeslo
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Social Economy ◽  
Social Violence ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
Social Tradition ◽  
The Unemployed

AbstractSince the beginning of the crisis and the rise of unemployment, the “social economy” has been given a strategic role in the defence of those abandoned by the capitalist economy. The social economy is regarded as an economy that produces social services and is also a tool for the integration of the unemployed. This role is all the more important because the social economy is historically carrier of democratic and social values and forms part of a social tradition dear to the workers' movement: a citizens' initiative, an alternative to the market economy with its injustice and social violence. It seems to us, from our experience in Belgium, that the social economy sector has also served as a Trojan horse for the deregulation of employment, constrained by the mode of subsidy and with the approval of its protagonists. We wonder if the call for the social economy development does not favor the weakening of the public service and the State's gradual withdrawal from public service? Is it an ambition or an adverse effect of the instrumentalisation to which this sector is subject?

Corporate social responsibility between public policy and enterprise policy

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Bredgaard
Keyword(s):  
Market Integration ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Business And Society ◽  
Employment Policy ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Unemployed

In spite of – or maybe precisely because of – its inherent vagueness, ambiguity and multidimensionality, CSR has increasingly come into vogue with the EU institutions, national governments and numerous European companies. This article identifies four types of CSR approaches: (1) CSR between business and society (e.g. the US approach); (2) CSR in business (e.g. HRM within firms); (3) CSR between business and government (e.g. the European Commission's approach) and (4) CSR between employment policy and business (e.g. the Danish approach). Denmark, which provides the case study of the article, typifies an approach to CSR in which the government and social partners have played an active role in promoting CSR and where initiatives have focused narrowly on employers’ responsibilities for the recruitment, training, development and dismissal of labour. The Danish case thus allows for a discussion of the role of public authorities and social partners in CSR, a discussion often neglected in mainstream CSR literature. The main question addressed in the article is how links can be created between policy instruments and business interests in order to reduce workplace exclusion and promote the labour market integration of the unemployed and inactive. We propose a framework that transcends the dichotomy between voluntarism and coercion that characterises much of the CSR discussion by suggesting different, but complementary, roles of public authorities and social partners in CSR.

Transitioning towards low carbon solidarity economies?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter North
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Social Enterprise ◽  
Social Economy ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
The Public ◽  
Diverse Economies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Socially Excluded

Building on the diverse economies perspective of JK Gibson-Graham, this chapter discusses how conceptions of just and sustainable economies in the context of the Anthropocene can be generated and, more importantly, performed through social and solidarity economies in the global North. It reviews concepts of the SSE in the global North, and discusses the extent that the UK social economy sector has been tamed and neoliberalised as more antagonistic conceptions of co-operative and grassroots economies created by green and socialist activists in the 1970s and 1980s have been transformed into neoliberal conceptions of social enterprise, with an inbuilt assumption that the private sector is more effective than the public. It discusses how in conditions of austerity social enterprise can legitimate the abandonment of socially excluded communities, and that to counter this, the social economy sector in the UK should develop more antagonistic perspectives, learning from Latin Americans. Finally, it discusses the contribution of Transition Initiatives in rekindling conceptions of grassroots sustainable economies.

scholarly journals An Examination of the Causes of Unemployment among Youths in Nigeria

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12S2) ◽  
pp. 567-573
Keyword(s):  
Youth Unemployment ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Leadership ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Self Reliance ◽  
Entire Society ◽  
Nigerian Government ◽  
The Unemployed

The rising youth unemployment in Nigeria is indeed disturbing as engagements of unemployed youths in armed robbery, kidnapping, Boko Haram, prostitution and other related social ills in Nigerian society are attributed to high rate of unemployment. The stated involvement in crimes by the unemployed youths does not only constitute social problems to the entire society but obstructs the development of the country. The main objective of this paper is to examine causes of youth unemployment in Nigeria as it relates mostly to moral bankruptcy in public leadership. Secondary sources were being used as the data for this study and it sets its analysis in the context of the neoliberal theory. The results of this study revealed that youth unemployment is caused mainly by corruption among the public office holders that has led to the degrading nature of infrastructures, security, and neglect of agriculture. This study therefore recommends among other things that Nigerian government ought to make its educational system self-reliance for the youths through the introduction of vocational and technical courses. Above all, Nigerian government should insist that its society has the enabling environment for business activities to thrive and that may as well accommodate investors and other businesses globally.

scholarly journals Kontanthjælpsmodtagerens kritiske register

2015 ◽  
pp. 63-77
Author(s):  
Mathias Herup Nielsen
Keyword(s):  
Political Protest ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Joint Work ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Protests ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Unemployed ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Domestic Form ◽  
Shed Light

This article investigates different acts of political protests currently floating from unemployed citizens who are being affected by recent retrenchment policy reforms. Whereas most of the existing literature tends to portray political protest as either collective and public or individual and private, this article attempts instead to shed light on the plurality of normative resources activated by the unemployed in a highly critical situation. Thereby the analysis moves between the collective and the individual as well as between the public and the private. Using the theoretical framework developed by Laurent Thévenot and Luc Boltanski in their joint work on justification, the article analyses a specific case, namely unemployed Danish recipients of social assistance who are affected by a new policy initiative meaning that their income has been lowered. Drawing on newspaper articles and qualitative in-depth interviews with affected citizens, the analysis unfolds and theorizes upon three very different forms of protesting: a civic, an industrial and a domestic form of resistance.

scholarly journals Considering Power in Community-Based Research: Shifting Toward New Pedagogical Approaches with a 'Public Work for Public Things' Framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Haarman ◽  
Patrick M Green
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Power Differential ◽  
Community Based Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Work ◽  
Community Based Learning ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Service Learning Pedagogy ◽  
The Voice

One of the fundamental questions of power in the pedagogy of community-based research (CBR) is who gets to decide what is research worthy and what is the focus of CBR questions? The reality of the power imbalance in community-based research and learning is often reflective of a systemic disengagement with the broader community. Even when instructors and administrators are intentional in how they solicit feedback or think through the impact of their work, they may not know the neighbourhood. Prioritising the voice of community partners does not provide a simple solution, as the individuals we work with to organise community-based learning opportunities may not be residents of the neighbourhood. This article adopts a theory-building approach to this crucial question. Building on the work of Boyte (2014) and Honig (2017), community-based research is reoriented as ‘public work for public things’ (Haarman 2020). After establishing the ‘public work for public things’ framework, the article explores how this new framework impacts collaborative research by addressing the power differential and creating new lines of inquiry – specifically the practice of ‘elicitation of concerns’. Through the lens of critical service-learning pedagogy (Mitchell 2008) and a practitioner-scholar framework (Lytle 2008; Ravitch 2013; Salipante & Aram 2003), we then interrogate two community-based research courses we have recently taught, examining how a ‘public work for public things’ approach would have altered the course and its methods.

scholarly journals Public support for ‘soft’ versus ‘hard’ public policies: Review of the evidence

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanchayan Banerjee ◽  
Manu Savani ◽  
Ganga Shreedhar
Keyword(s):  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Future Research Agenda ◽  
Educational Campaigns

This article reviews the literature on public support for ‘soft’ versus ‘hard’ policy instruments for behaviour change, and the factors that drive such preferences. Soft policies typically include ‘moral suasion’ and educational campaigns, and more recently behavioural public policy approaches like nudges. Hard policy instruments, such as laws and taxes, restrict choices and alter financial incentives. In contrast to the public support evidenced for hard policy instruments during COVID-19, prior academic literature pointed to support for softer policy instruments. We investigate and synthesise the evidence on when people prefer one type of policy instrument over another. Drawing on multi-disciplinary evidence, we identify perceived effectiveness, trust, personal experience and self-interest as important determinants of policy instrument preferences, along with broader factors including the choice and country context. We further identify various gaps in our understanding that informs and organise a future research agenda around three themes. Specifically, we propose new directions for research on what drives public support for hard versus soft behavioural public policies, highlighting the value of investigating the role of individual versus contextual factors (especially the role of behavioural biases); how preferences evolve over time; and whether and how preferences spillovers across different policy domains.

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