scholarly journals A social investment perspective on labour market policies for vulnerable groups

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-238
Author(s):  
Ides Nicasie
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Investment Model ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Labour Market Policies ◽  
Positive Effects

This article conceptualises the notion of “social investment’ within the context of social protection and active labour market policies. This paradigm is confronted to the neoliberal ‘making work pay’ paradigm and the conservative workfare doctrine build on the idea that a stronger work ethos needs to be inculcated through reduced rights and more duties. The social investment paradigm advocates generous social protection combined with enabling investments and is thus perfectly congruent with social inclusion objectives. The empirical analysis shows remarkably small effects of both types of policies in the past 15 years: ALMPs have had small positive effects on employment, but also on exits into inactivity. The most positive employment effect of ALMPs is a redistribution of employment opportunities towards older, female and less educated groups. The Re-inVEST research analyses in-depth participatory case studies of policies targeting disadvantaged groups in different European countries, using an ‘enriched’ social investment model, building on a human rights and capabilities approach. The findings indeed show very wide differences in quality – and a lot of room for improvement. In order to improve their effectiveness as well as inclusiveness, the right to decent ALMPs should be put on the policy agenda.

scholarly journals Three Shortcomings of the Social Investment Perspective

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bea Cantillon ◽  
Wim Van Lancker
Keyword(s):  
Capital Investment ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
The Social

In this article we critically assess the social investment perspective that has become the dominant paradigm in European social policymaking. We identify and discuss some of its shortcomings that may hamper social progress for all. In doing so, we focus on three pillars central to the idea of social investment: social inclusion through work, individual responsibility and human capital investment. We find that the social investment perspective has some serious flaws when it comes to the social protection of vulnerable groups. This is strongly related to the continuing relevance of social class in explaining and remedying social inequalities. We conclude that investment cannot be the only rationale for welfare state intervention and that protecting people should remain equally high on the policy agenda.

scholarly journals From Social Protection to Social Investment

2021 ◽  
pp. 343-394
Author(s):  
Olaf van Vliet ◽  
Vincent Bakker ◽  
Lars van Doorn
Keyword(s):  
Technological Change ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Investment Policies ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
European Welfare States

Globalization, technological change, and migration form three major challenges for European welfare states in the 21st century. These challenges are regarded as important sources of inequality on the labour market. Whereas the existing literature has mainly been focused on the sectors and occupations affected by globalization and technological change, the authors of this chapter argue that, via job polarization, these phenomena also affect the type of contract that workers have. They hypothesize that increased competition for low-paying jobs is associated with labour market flexibilization. Another major trend that they analyse is the free movement of labour. New data illustrate that labour migration from Central and Eastern European countries to Western European countries has grown slowly but substantially following recent enlargements of the Union. It has been considered a challenge for welfare states as it might contribute to feelings of economic insecurity and might erode solidarity, which forms the basis for the provision of social policy. Subsequently, the authors analyse how European welfare states have evolved over the past decades. They show that in spite of budgetary pressure stemming from globalization and migration, most countries have increased social expenditure. Furthermore, they analyse to what extent the focus has shifted from classical social protection to social investment policies to enable workers to adapt themselves to new labour market transformations. They contribute to the existing literature by covering years after the financial crisis for all EU member states and by demonstrating a novel way of correcting social expenditures for the number of recipients.

scholarly journals Everyone into Work

2021 ◽  
pp. 111-140
Author(s):  
Monique Kremer ◽  
Robert Went ◽  
Godfried Engbersen
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Good Work ◽  
Labour Market Policies ◽  
Active Labour Market Policies ◽  
Market Opening ◽  
Active Labour

AbstractDespite successive Dutch governments emphasizing “jobs, jobs, jobs”, thousands of people who want to work have no jobs at all, never mind good jobs. Are new technologies, flexible contracts and the intensification of work helping or hindering vulnerable groups to stay in work - in good work in particular? This chaper seeks to answer these questions while analysing what is already being done to provide good work for all. Is the changing labour market opening new opportunities? We address the automation, flexibilization and intensification of work and discuss the need for active labour market policies.

Social Investment and the Matthew Effect

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuliano Bonoli ◽  
Bea Cantillon ◽  
Wim Van Lancker
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Matthew Effect ◽  
Investment Strategies ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Active Labour Market Policies ◽  
Active Labour ◽  
The Matthew Effect ◽  
Matthew Effects

There are reasons to assume that spending on social investment is more susceptible to Matthew Effects than spending on social protection. Due to the gravity of social and cultural stratification, more vulnerable segments of societies tend to find it hard to navigate their way to the educational system, the labour market, and public services. Therefore, although social investment strategies have the potential to mitigate social and cultural inequalities, spending on capacitating services will tend to be more beneficial to the middle and upper classes, thereby creating an adverse redistribution of resources. This unintended and reinforcing effect has been shown by empirical research on the benefits of childcare, parental leave, some active labour-market policies, and higher education. Appropriate policy designs may reduce such adverse effects, but are unlikely to eliminate them completely. This requires that redistributive and protective issues should be firmly addressed in policy and discourse.

The Slow Road to the Social Investment Perspective in the European Union

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Dinan
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Social

The European Union has no unilateral legislative capacity in the area of social policy. However, the European Commission does play the role of guide by providing a discursive framework and targets for its 28 Member States to meet. Since the late 1990’s, the EU’s ideas on social policy have moved away from the traditional social protection model towards promoting social inclusion, labour activation and investing in children. These new policies represent the social investment perspective, which advocates preparing the population for a knowledge-based economy to increase economic growth and job creation and to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. The EU began the gradual incorporation of the social investment perspective to its social dimension with the adoption of ten-year strategies. Since 2000, it has continued to set goals and benchmarks as well as offer a forum for Member States to coordinate their social initiatives. Drawing on a series of interviews conducted during a research experience in Brussels as well as official documents, this paper is a descriptive analysis of the recent modifications to the EU’s social dimension. It focuses on the changes created by the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Social Investment Package. By tracing the genesis and evolution of these initiatives, the author identifies four obstacles to social investment in the European Union's social dimension.   Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v10i1.263

Slovenian labour market policies under austerity: narrowing the gap between the well- and the less well‑protected in the labour market?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroljub Ignjatović ◽  
Maša Filipovič Hrast
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Employment Protection ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Employment Protection Legislation ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Protection Legislation ◽  
The Unemployed

The economic crisis stimulated several reforms of the Slovenian labour market. In this chapter we present the major labour market policy changes, with emphasis on the period after 2010. These changes are also presented in relation to the retrenchment/expansion of policies, the adoption of activation and flexicurity, and their consequences for the living standards of the most vulnerable groups. The objective of labour market changes seems to be to increase flexibility and to implement activation (and social investment) more fully, as well as to improve the position of the most vulnerable groups on the labour market. Despite that, retrenchment has also been evident. The changes in labour regulations in 2014 reduced the employment protection legislation index for regular contracts, and the cuts in unemployment benefits, along with the changes in the social security system, have affected the unemployed, who remain among the groups most at risk of poverty.

From Social Investment to Investing in the Social: Insiders’ Perceptions, Experiences, and Expectations

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
DASSI POSTAN-AIZIK ◽  
RONI STRIER
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Human Capital Development ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
Capital Development

Abstract Social investment is a policy approach intended to promote the social inclusion of excluded individuals and groups, mainly through labour market participation and long-term human capital development. Since the 1980’s this approach has spread from Europe worldwide and is now regarded as the latest shift from both ‘traditional’ welfare and the unrestrained neoliberal policy implemented under the austerity regime of the last decades. Most social investment studies focus on the social and economic impacts of policy at the macro-level. This article takes a different perspective to examine how members of excluded communities experience social investment policy in their daily lives. The study analyzes qualitative data collected from a purposive sample of 96 participants from excluded communities in the North of Israel. Findings indicate that participants strongly support social investment ideas of inclusion via human capital development and the labour market. However, their experiences in both areas point to continued struggles with social mechanisms that marginalize them and reinforce multigenerational exclusion. Findings affirm critique of social investment when implemented without major structural changes. The study implications for policy suggest that, without such changes, the paradigmatic promises of social investment may further entrench social exclusion by replicating discriminatory and oppressive practices.

scholarly journals The Slow Road to the Social Investment Perspective in the European Union

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Dinan
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Social

The European Union has no unilateral legislative capacity in the area of social policy. However, the European Commission does play the role of guide by providing a discursive framework and targets for its 28 Member States to meet. Since the late 1990’s, the EU’s ideas on social policy have moved away from the traditional social protection model towards promoting social inclusion, labour activation and investing in children. These new policies represent the social investment perspective, which advocates preparing the population for a knowledge-based economy to increase economic growth and job creation and to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. The EU began the gradual incorporation of the social investment perspective to its social dimension with the adoption of ten-year strategies. Since 2000, it has continued to set goals and benchmarks as well as offer a forum for Member States to coordinate their social initiatives. Drawing on a series of interviews conducted during a research experience in Brussels as well as official documents, this paper is a descriptive analysis of the recent modifications to the EU’s social dimension. It focuses on the changes created by the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Social Investment Package. By tracing the genesis and evolution of these initiatives, the author identifies four obstacles to social investment in the European Union's social dimension.

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