Single mothers and resistance to welfare-to-work: A Bourdieusian account

This research applied Bourdieusian field theory to explain the forms of resistance exercised by single mothers exposed to the cultural and economic domination of Australian welfare-to-work policy. The mothers were affected by policy changes that reduced their social security benefit income and brought them into the field of activation policies. Unlike other studies focusing on well-being effects, this study focused on understanding resistance, that is, how welfare subjects like single mothers exercise resistance in dominating contexts. Bourdieusian field theory was applied to explain these resistances as a reaction to a social policy reclassification and to identity the enabling resources for it. This article observes the conditions that enabled single mothers to convert individual forms of resistance into collective action. In this respect, Husu’s adaptation of Bourdieusian field theory to social movement studies provided insight into how dominating fields like those of activation policy, generate resistances and social movements.

Sacrificial citizens? Activation and retrenchment in Ireland’s political economy

This article provides a critical commentary on Irish activation policy. It is framed with reference to the point made in Pathways to Work 2016–2020 that a key purpose of activation is ‘to help ensure a supply of labour at competitive rates’. It looks at how a tougher work-first activation regime can be situated within the wider landscape of reform and retrenchment in the social protection system following the 2008 financial crisis. Broadly utilising Pierson’s concepts of programmatic and systemic retrenchment, it situates the roll-out of activation within shifts toward greater reliance on means-tested benefits for the unemployed, and toward work first, with varying degrees of compulsion, for other working-age adults in the social protection system. Suggesting that this results in a hierarchy of ‘welfare sacrifice’ for the sake of the competitiveness of the Irish economy, it also looks briefly at how some of these ‘sacrifices’ are experienced by different groups both in and out of the labour market. The article concludes by noting that the Covid-19 pandemic has temporarily transformed state–market relations such as these; however, whether this offers the opportunity to forge a more supportive turn in activation policy post-pandemic remains an open question.

Placement Advisors as Innovators. How Professionals Use Enhanced Discretion in Germany’s Public Employment Services

Employees of the public employment services (PES) are street-level bureaucrats who shape activation policy on the ground. This paper examines how PES staff use enhanced discretion in an innovation project carried out by the German Federal Employment Agency. Applying a bottom-up perspective, we reconstruct PES employees’ logic of action and the dilemmas they face in improving counselling and placement services. According to our findings, placement staff use enhanced discretion to promote more individualised support and an adequate matching of jobseekers and employers. The use of discretion is framed by organisational norms and reward mechanisms and by the current labour market situation. Our analyses are based on qualitative interviews and group discussions with placement staff.

Linguistic Diversity as a Challenge for Street-Level Bureaucrats in a Monolingually-Oriented Organisation

Migration-induced diversity has led to the global emergence of multilingual life worlds in which language regimes are particularly intertwined with labour markets. Thus, state institutions such as national unemployment services must fulfil a special role in society. In a qualitative research project (2019–2021), we interviewed employees at the Austrian Public Employment Service (AMS) at multiple organisational levels. The results demonstrate diverging and (apparently) contradicting approaches and strategies throughout the organisation concerning the appropriateness of using German exclusively during interactions with clients. This is illustrated along a continuum, ranging from a reflective, critical approach towards linguistic diversity that is at least partly based on ideas promoting the value of multilingualism to frequently encountered notions of the need for monolingualism. Such a framework must be understood by considering the coexistence of diverging ideas and ideologies surrounding multilingualism, as well as a neoliberal working context characterised by new public management and activation policy.

Client experience of street-level activation practices: Implementation of discourage policy in the Czech Republic

Despite the fact that the unemployment rate in the Czech Republic is one of the lowest in Europe, the country suffers from stagnating long-term unemployment. At the same time, there is a large number of people who fall out of the system as a result of harsh sanctions. The article aims to examine how the activation policy is implemented from the perspective of job seekers and to identify street-level activation practices using a micro-institutionalist perspective. To meet the objective, we used a qualitative research strategy and in-depth interviews. The results of the study show how particular levels of activation intertwine and how they strengthen and create a comprehensive normative system around work, unemployment, and financial support, thus enabling the implementation of the street-level activation practices. Street-level bureaucrats pursue formal policy goals that seek to discourage people from entitlement to benefits and services to cut down expenditures and improve statistics.

Activation Policy as an Investment in Human Capital: Theory and Practice

Introduction. Social and economic activation programs are a key area of the social policy in advanced economies. A defining feature of this policy is a shift in focus from passive assistance to employment promotion and economic activity. Problem Statement. Implementation of activation programs requires the creation of a relevant methodological basis and tools for their development, realization and evaluation. Purpose. To substantiate approaches to the implementation and evaluation of programs for activating idle recipients of social assistance. Materials and Methods. The results of projects implemented as part of international support programs in 2011-2018, in particular, a pilot project directed to test mechanisms for attracting recipients of benefits to the labor market have been considered. The face-to-face sociological survey methods, statistical methods for processing anonymous data from the social assistance system registry, as well as the method of combining data from the registry and the survey have been used. A methodology for monitoring the effectiveness and efficiency of activity tools has been specially developed. Results. The prerequisites for creation of the activation policy were identified, and the experience of its implementation has been generalized. Based on the assessment of the composition and psychological attitudes of social assistance recipients, results of previous reforms, the relevance of implementing activation programs in Ukraine has been proved. The essence of programs promoting employment and activating socially vulnerable groups of the population has been determined. The project has been evaluated on a set of criteria, including the impact on unemployment, poverty, budget revenues, and jobs. Recommendations on the practical implementation of activation programs have been developed. Conclusions. Piloting the activation tools has shown their high efficiency. However, in spite of the obvious positive results, risks that shall be taken into account when introducing the tools into practice have been identified.