Dialogued‐based activation – a new “dispositif”?

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The so-called individual action plan (IAP) has become a major policy instrument in providing active welfare for social benefit claimants, and as such it has attracted quite a research interest. The purpose of this paper is to maintain that research hitherto has been founded in a too narrow notion of the IAP, arguing instead that IAP represents a new societal rationality, in relation to which the scope of research questions should be broadened. Design/methodology/approach -The paper explores the basic dynamics and internal features of the IAP dialogue theoretically and ideal typically. It is furthermore argued that IAP-like arrangements have extended far beyond the domain of social policy; IAP-like dialogues are practiced in all corners of society in the form of HRM conversations, supervision, coaching etc. Relating to Foucault it is therefore argued that IAP represents a new dispositif. Findings -The paper states that the emerging dispositif demands that the individual constitutes herself as a creative and self-expressive subject in dynamic dialogue. Accordingly the microphysics of the interaction change for the clientele as well as for the case worker. Purpose and procedures turn singular, which undermines collective endeavours and general criteria for success in social policy. Originality/value -The paper employs a theoretical and sociological perspective on the IAP as a new technology in the organisation of social policy, and its contribution lies in its displacement of the perspective on IAP and its consequences on research questions.

The activating profession: coaching and coercing in the welfare services

“…This is reminiscent of Foucault's notion of " confessional technologies", that has been applied to understand the modern spread of counselling techniques based in ideas that people can gain control over their lives through working on themselves and create knowledge of him/herself as a basis for improvement (Fejes 2008, Nguyen 2013. Born and Jensen (2010) call this kind of dialogue-based activation a "new dispositif", meaning that contemporary welfare policies require users to constitute themselves as creative and self-reflexive subjects in dialogue with the street-level bureaucrats. This requires specific skills from the users, but also works to constitute the competence needs of NAV's street-level bureaucrats in particular ways.…”

Ingenierías de la subjetividad: el caso de la orientación para el empleo

“…Se trataría de movilizar el potencial individual y las capacidades de acción que refuercen la autonomía del sujeto, esto es, la fabricación de sujetos capaces de gestionar de modo autónomo las condiciones de integración y participación en la sociedad (Franssen, 2003;Born y Jensen, 2010), capaces de tomar las riendas de su propia vida. Se trata de la transformación del Estado social en un proyecto moderno, en un Estado «tutor» que lleva a cabo intervenciones orientadas a la oferta de mano de obra, reforzando el capital humano, y asegurando la «agencia individual»: provisión de competencias éticas (autogestión, autoayuda y autosufi ciencia) que permitan generar un nuevo perfi l de trabajador (más fl exible, activo, empleable, etc.…”

Regulating Transitions from School to Work

“…Castel links the emergence of contractual agreements to a rise of "negative individualism" where the "contractual matrix" is "demanded or indeed dictated, that impoverished individuals behave like autonomous persons" (Castel 1995: 449). Similarly Born and Jensen (2010) describe the growing use of contracts between the state and its citizens for instance as "individual action plans" (IAP´s), as new societal rationality of governing people. For Born and Jensen, the IAP interview is a good example of the production of subjects for inculcating the new ethic of "desirable self-regulation" (Dean 2007).…”