Combining labour market and unemployment policies with environmental sustainability? A cross-national study on ecosocial innovations

Abstract

Labour market and unemployment policies in particular are rarely connected to issues of environmental sustainability. In the present article, the link is examined by focusing on ecosocial innovations in four European countries – Finland, Germany, Belgium and Italy. These innovations are small-scale associations, cooperatives or organizations that create new integrative practices combining both social and environmental goals. By asking how their social practices are linked with labour market and unemployment policies, we explore the scope for new ecosocial policies. The results of this cross-national case study lead to three lessons to be learnt for a future ecosocial welfare state: at the sectoral level, organizational level and individual level. In summary, many valuable ideas, instruments and programmes towards sustainability already exist in the field, but they are not yet integrated in the current labour market and unemployment policies.

Ecosocial innovations enabling social work to promote new forms of sustainable economy

“…To our eyes, these hybrid mixtures and collaborations already challenge mainstream understandings that recognise only the market economy and paid labour. Welfare state‐based benefits are part of the economic framework of most ecosocial innovations and can be regarded as meaningful social investments (O’Riordan, 2013; Stamm et al, 2020). Collaboration with labour market agencies enables both public funding for the projects and income benefits for the participants.…”

“…For the purpose of analysing practices of the sustainable economy in this article, we use qualitative data from a four-year research project that addressed practical grassroots models of transition towards sustainability. To collect these grassroots examples, we created the concept of ecosocial innovations and defined four criteria to identify them, based on a comprehensive literature review of sustainability transitions (see Matthies et al, 2019;Stamm et al, 2017Stamm et al, , 2020. Each example of the ecosocial innovation had to be innovative in character, while contributing in some way to the sustainability transition (Loorbach et al, 2017;Wolfram, 2018).…”

“…In all cases, the diverse forms of value creation become most visible when we look at the diverse work practices (see also, Stamm et al, 2020). All cases include wage labour, alternative paid labour and unpaid labour, and all incorporate specific settings for various forms of employment, workfare or volunteering.…”

“…We explore how these core themes appear in practice in ecosocial innovations. We introduced the concept ecosocial innovations in connection with a four‐year research project we conducted in five European countries (Matthies, Stamm, Hirvilammi, & Närhi, 2019; Stamm, Hirvilammi, Matthies, & Närhi, 2017; Stamm, Matthies, Hirvilammi, & Närhi, 2020). Ecosocial innovations are social innovations that combine ecological and social goals.…”

Enabling Participation Income for an Eco-Social State

“…While there is now a growing consensus about the need for such an eco-social policy agenda, there is far less agreement about what specific social policies might contribute to this reorientation. , The role of social policy in enabling sustainable transitions remains marginal within the literature on decarbonization (Bohnenberger 2020) while the ecological impacts of social policies remain 'largely ignored' (Koch, 2018: 42) within mainstream social policy debates (Stamm et al, 2020). To rectify this double neglect, we revise the concept of a 'participation income' (PI) (Atkinson, 1996), positioning it as a form of 'green conditional basic income' (Bohnenberger, 2020: 596) that retains a commitment to the principle of reciprocity but affirms forms of reproductive and ecological labour (care for people, the environment and social-democratic institutions), and not just paid employment, as fulfilling participation requirements.…”