Activation and Labour Market Reforms in Europe: Challenges to Social Citizenship — Introduction

The End of Social Security as we know it – The Erosion of Status Protection in German Labour Market Policy

“…Since then, the German social state has seen fundamental change so that researchers continually proclaim the end of the conservative German model (Lessenich, 2003; Bleses and Seeleib-Kaiser, 2004; Hinrichs, 2010; Seeleib-Kaiser, 2016). The main argument of this contribution is that policy reforms since the mid-1990s have reinforced the erosion effect of earlier structural modifications of the 1970s and 1980s (see Offe, 1987), as they are going along with a normative shift away from the logic of status-centredness towards a scheme that aims at quick re-employment and the provision of minimum security (Eichhorst et al , 2010; Bothfeld and Betzelt, 2011). In contrast to earlier analyses, that rejected the idea of radical change of the unemployment security scheme through the reforms of the 2000s (Clasen and Goerne, 2011; Dingeldey, 2011), this article seeks to broaden the perspective and demonstrate that, taken together, all incremental policy reforms since the mid-1990s – and particularly those from 2000 onwards – have undermined the German labour market policy regime.…”

Social marginalization and chronic illness: A critical analysis of the role of labour-market exclusion

“…Social rights have a somewhat different character and are defined as the right to a minimum of economic security and welfare, and the right to live a life in accordance with the standard of the surrounding society. These rights are often associated with modern welfare states, especially those that are more universalistic, and are also often considered the precondition for citizens’ active participation in social and political activities (Bothfeld and Betzelt, 2011).…”

“…A point of critique that can be made against the traditional understanding of social citizenship is that it tends to reduce social citizenship to a matter of formal social right and participation, and thereby neglects that a lack of social citizenship can also manifest itself on a personal level, as well as in relation to the social relations in which the individual engages (Bothfeld and Betzelt, 2011, 2013). Though social rights constitute a crucial foundation for participation, participation also requires a minimum of personal autonomy and a sense of belonging in order for the individual to be able to engage in a political and democratic relation with the state and in a social relation with the surrounding society.…”

“…Looking especially at policies targeting chronically ill persons and other groups considered vulnerable due to poor health, the political argument is that labour-market inclusion is the key to social inclusion and also a necessity for the realization of social citizenship (Bothfeld and Betzelt, 2011; Nørup, 2014). Hence, the underlying theoretical argument is that individuals with chronic illnesses appear to face a higher risk of social marginalization because they do not work.…”

Employability skills and the notion of ‘self’

“…In particular, the ‘Job‐Aqtiv‐Law’ of 2001 was based upon employability, manifesting a new relationship between the individual and the welfare state (Dingeldey, , p. 285). Accordingly, transferring responsibility from the state to the individual can be observed as a dominant trend across Europe since the 1990s (Bothfeld & Betzelt, ). Second, the employability rhetoric in Germany drove a series of newly emerging government‐supported programmes to promote entrepreneurship and self‐employment (Gottschall & Kroos, ).…”