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Article
Publication date: 11 September 2007

Vando Borghi and Rik van Berkel

The first part of the paper aimed to interpret the changes addressed by the concepts of governance and activation in their context, in order to grasp the larger picture of the…

918

Abstract

Purpose

The first part of the paper aimed to interpret the changes addressed by the concepts of governance and activation in their context, in order to grasp the larger picture of the societal transformation underlying them: the starting point is the assumption that new modes of governance in activation policies are a fruitful entry point for effectively understanding deep waves of change of contemporary society. The second part aims to briefly introduce the papers included in this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper insists on a perspective according to which there are two main dimension characterising the context of addressed transformations: the paradoxical torsion of the historical process of individualisation in the new spirit of capitalism; the profound redesign of the institutional programme, implying a new horizon for the instances of publicness.

Findings

Different and contradictory trends are pointed out in the actual pursuing of objectives of governance and activation, as far as the process of individualisation and the redesign of publicness are concerned. The impossibility of finding an abstract and universal evaluation of these transformations and the necessity of situated empirical inquiries are stressed.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates the relevance of deepening the normative underlying dimensions (with regard to individualisation and publicness) of social processes for a better understanding of concrete transformations (specifically: operational and substantive changes introduced by new modes of governance in activation policies).

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 27 no. 9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

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Article
Publication date: 11 September 2007

Vando Borghi and Rik van Berkel

This article aims to discuss the individualisation trend in the provision of social services, focusing on activation services specifically.

2123

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to discuss the individualisation trend in the provision of social services, focusing on activation services specifically.

Design/methodology/approach

The individualisation trend in the provision of activation services is analysed against the background of public sector as well as social sector as well as social policy reforms: the introduction of new modes of governance and the rise of the active welfare state respectively.

Findings

Concrete manifestations of individualised service provision are often based on various interpretations of individualisation and reflect different meanings of citizens’ participation, and refer to different modes – or rather, mixes of different modes – of governance. The general argument of the article is illustrated and elaborated by analysing three national case studies of individualised service provision in the context of activation: the UK, The Netherlands and Finland.

Originality/value

The trend that is analysed in the article – individualised service provision – is very clearly present in welfare state reforms, but has thus far not received much attention in academic literature.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 27 no. 9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 31 July 2007

Rik van Berkel and Vando Borghi

This editorial aims to introduce the first of a set of two special issues on New modes of governance in activation policies.

1557

Abstract

Purpose

This editorial aims to introduce the first of a set of two special issues on New modes of governance in activation policies.

Design/methodology/approach

The article explores the concept of governance, distinguishing a broad and more narrow use of the concept. Then, it argues that issues of governance should be an integral part of studies of welfare state transformations. Not in the last instance, because governance reforms do have an impact on the content of social policies and social services such as activation. The article continues by discussing three models of the provision of social services.

Findings

The article states that the development of the modes of governance in activation in various countries reveals that a mix of service provision models is being used.

Originality/value

The article introduces the articles of the special issue.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 27 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 11 September 2007

Janet Newman

This paper aims to explore activation policy as a condensate for new forms of governance in respect of welfare institutions and in relation to welfare subjects. It asks how far…

2424

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore activation policy as a condensate for new forms of governance in respect of welfare institutions and in relation to welfare subjects. It asks how far apparently similar concepts – contractualisation, individuation, personalisation – can be applied to the governance of institutions and the governance of persons.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on a model of different governance regimes to trace different dynamics at stake in the shift to activation policy.

Findings

Tensions in the dynamics of the transformation of welfare governance around notions of activation are highlighted. It is also argued that different reconfigurations of power are at stake in the governance of institutions and the governance of persons. Finally tensions between notions of active, activist and activation conceptions of citizenship are traced.

Research limitations/implications

The paper challenges a govermentality perspective in which managerial discourses are assumed to have similar consequences for institutions and for persons, so drawing attention to the importance of context.

Practical implications

Limited value

Originality/value

This paper makes an original contribution to the field by tracing a number of different dynamics at stake in activation policy rather than assuming a coherent shift from earlier forms of welfare regime.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 27 no. 9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 11 September 2007

Amparo Serrano Pascual and Eduardo Crespo Suárez

This contribution, using EU institutions' legitimacy‐seeking procedures as an analytical framework, aims to discuss the political traps of EU governance processes taking place in…

801

Abstract

Purpose

This contribution, using EU institutions' legitimacy‐seeking procedures as an analytical framework, aims to discuss the political traps of EU governance processes taking place in EU bodies in pursuit of a new institutionalisation of the Lisbon strategy.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach is in the form of a discursive analysis.

Findings

The discursive analysis shows the hegemony of two disciplines and approaches: economy and psychology. These will be shown to be interconnected, as they have together contributed to the depoliticisation of responses to current economic demands and social reforms and to the repoliticisation of individuals (contribution to an identity production policy). This “multi‐level governance process” which characterises the regulation of the EES by EU institutions might be transformed into a project of multi‐level governance without political government.

Originality/value

The paper looks at the process of seeking responses to the labour market crisis within Europe.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 27 no. 9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 31 July 2007

Tomáš Sirovátka, Pavel Horák and Markéta Horáková

The paper deals with the question to what extent implementation conditions influence the profile of activation policies in the Czech Republic. In this way, it helps to clarify…

378

Abstract

Purpose

The paper deals with the question to what extent implementation conditions influence the profile of activation policies in the Czech Republic. In this way, it helps to clarify more general questions: how are broader objectives of these policies specified at the bottom level of implementation and why activation policies differ among countries, although guided by similar general objectives and principles.

Design/methodology/approach

The findings are based on implementation case studies carried out at several local labour offices during the pilot stage and later during the routine stage of implementation of Individual Action Plans (IAPs).

Findings

The paper shows that in the pilot stage of IAPs, the employability approach of enforced activation originated from the top‐down and was adopted at the local level; however, in a fragmented way due to unfavourable implementation conditions (above all poor staffing and a lack of activation programmes). It follows from these very conditions that, in the routine stage, the programme has been dying away, despite being supported by legislation and programme documents. On the other hand, processes of institutional learning have been initiated owing to IAPs and, with the availability of new policy opportunities at the local level (brought about with projects funded from the ESF), policy coalitions and activation policies emerge from the bottom‐up, giving rise to another model: capability approach of inclusion through participation.

Practical implications

The findings are signalling to policy makers the necessity to control the implementation conditions at the national, as well as local level and to take the bottom‐up processes of policy re‐formulation into consideration.

Originality/value

The analysis of the contradictions between the levels of policy‐making and of the volatility of implemented policies emerging from specific implementation conditions represents the original contribution of the study.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 27 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 11 September 2007

Jean‐Michel Bonvin and Eric Moachon

This article's purpose is to analyse the current transformations of public action in two main respects: on the one side the relationships between individuals and institutions and…

785

Abstract

Purpose

This article's purpose is to analyse the current transformations of public action in two main respects: on the one side the relationships between individuals and institutions and their recent evolutions, on the other, the new contractual or market‐like ways of designing and implementing public action. This twofold transformation and the extent to which it represents a deep‐seated revolution or a more limited recalibration of the public realm are to be investigated against the case of Swiss active labour market policies.

Design/methodology/approach

This issue is examined through the design of a theoretical and normative typology, which is then applied to the case of active labour market policies in Switzerland, based on an in‐depth empirical investigation (more than 50 interviews with field actors).

Findings

The emergence of new modes of governance coincides with the promotion of market solutions to unemployment, thus leading to a conception of welfare and its individual beneficiaries as subordinate to labour market requirements.

Research limitations/implications

The empirical part of this paper focuses on one specific case, the Swiss ALMPs. Further research is needed for a more general assessment of the issue.

Originality/value

One key element of the approach is the link made between substantial and procedural issues related to recent evolutions in the field of social integration policies. In the authors' view substantial and organisational aspects of the political process should be studied jointly.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 27 no. 9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 31 July 2007

Els Sol and Mies Westerveld

Activation policies in most Western countries have discovered the private tool of contract and in a short period of time the contract has penetrated the whole domain. Among the…

931

Abstract

Purpose

Activation policies in most Western countries have discovered the private tool of contract and in a short period of time the contract has penetrated the whole domain. Among the forerunner countries contracts in different forms, collective as well as individual, have become the central steering instrument. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on what this change can and does entail for the individual job seeker on benefit. Job seekers are no longer expected to passive undergo treatment but expected to contribute actively to one's own return into the labour market. The main rationale behind this shift is the idea that working with contracts increases the level of involvement and, therefore improves results over time: results in terms of better motivated clients, more focused policymakers, providers and frontline workers delivering client‐orientated services.

Design/methodology/approach

Using qualitative research the article maps the different types of contracts using empirical material from eight countries.

Findings

The findings are presented in the form of the practical potentials and pittfalls of contracts for the individual.

Originality/value

A major added value is the multidisciplinary approach used by the authors; the phenomenon of contracts is analysed from a social science and a legal point of view.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 27 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 31 July 2007

Håkan Johansson and Bjørn Hvinden

To clarify the core characteristics of Nordic activation policies in the context of typologies of European activation governance.

1754

Abstract

Purpose

To clarify the core characteristics of Nordic activation policies in the context of typologies of European activation governance.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper analyses activation governance in the light of the basic values and beliefs behind the formation of the Nordic social protection systems in the mid‐20th century. Recent model‐building efforts see the Nordic countries as being close to a “universalistic” and egalitarian type of activation policy that does not systematically submit citizens to work requirements. The authors ask whether this model captures the actual scope and contents of Nordic activation governance.

Findings

The Nordic countries‐based relatively generous income security systems on a strong work ethic and ambitions to maximise labour market participation of the working‐age population. Citizens's rights to income security were generally linked to the fulfilment of work requirements. Although this active governance of unemployed citizens eroded in the 1970s and 1980s all the Nordic countries revived it after 1990. Largely reflecting the dual structure of the income protection system, Nordic active approaches to activation are not egalitarian.

Research limitations/implications

Nordic countries are currently implementing major administrative reforms in social protection, possibly creating more unified and egalitarian governance of activation. Future research needs to assess the impact of these reforms.

Originality/value

The article presents an analysis of activation policies that so far has been missing from comparative research and that will be of particular value for non‐Nordic readers who may have received a biased view of Nordic activation policies.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 27 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 11 September 2007

Emma Carmel, Kate Hamblin and Theo Papadopoulos

This paper seeks to evaluate the EU's “active ageing” agenda as a governance strategy for the activation of older workers, and its impact on the regulation both of those who make…

971

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to evaluate the EU's “active ageing” agenda as a governance strategy for the activation of older workers, and its impact on the regulation both of those who make, and those who are the objects of, policy. This case study is used to reflect more broadly on the implications of governance strategies for the regulation of social subjects in the European Union (EU).

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts a model of governance comprising two dimensions, namely formal policy (policy aims) and operational policy (policy means). This model is used to explain how and to what effect, discourses and institutions interact in EU governance to produce particular forms of social subject regulation; in this case, activation.

Findings

For the operational dimension, the paper explores how contradictions and tensions within and between employment, pensions and social inclusion policies are reflected in, and the products of, a re‐allocation of responsibilities between the EU, member states, social partners, and individuals. For the formal dimension, it explains how employment for older workers is constructed as having a different meaning to the employment of other workers, and how EU discourse on active ageing disguises crucial inequalities between groups of older workers, both pre‐ and post‐retirement.

Research implications/limitations

The paper concludes that active ageing policy in the EU institutes a new category of social subject, apparently eliding the former distinction between employment and retirement, namely the “activated retiree”.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates the efficacy of the two‐dimensional approach to the empirical analysis of governance strategies and identifies how key tensions in the production of EU social policies directly impact on the regulation of social subject categories in the EU.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 27 no. 9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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