Do Employment Services Need to Be Neoliberal?

Nunn, Alex

doi:10.4324/9781315110486-11

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Evidence suggests that part of what influences this is the nature of the actors involved. 'Inclusive governance' (Nunn, 2018) practices which seek to open up the often closed and superficially technocratic processes of lower scale setting, monitoring, management and revision of performance indicators, to consciously re-politicise them, may offer the opportunity to influence the political economy content of policy implementation. It is true that such moves may remain piecemeal and contingent.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neoliberalization, fast policy transfer and the management of labor market services

Nunn

2019

Review of International Political Economy

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Neoliberalism has been a core concern for IPE for several decades, but is often ill-defined. Research offering greater definitional clarity stresses the role of contingent and local level factors in diverse processes of neoliberalisation. This paper contributes to that literature, addressing a surprising gap in critical IPE knowledge; the management practices by which pressures to activate the unemployed and to make them more competitive, are implemented. The paper suggests that performance management, is significant as both a depoliticising policy coordination mechanism and a highly politicised policy implementation practice. The paper invokes a scalar-relational approach which sees the pressure to innovate and compete at lower scales as driven by the political economy of competitiveness at the system scale. The paper reports on research undertaken within the empirical frame of EU meta-governance, showing how performance management is part of lower-scale attempts to adapt to system-scale pressures. It is neoliberalising in both form and content. It concludes by showing that while performance management may be a significant component of neoliberalisation there is scope for engagement and contestation motivated by egalitarian ideals. Critical IPE scholars interested in contesting neoliberalisation should therefore engage with the political economy of management practice as well as policy design.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neoliberalization, fast policy transfer and the management of labor market services

Nunn

2019

Review of International Political Economy

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“…Performance management principles are the one of the most important principles of the NPM understanding. The main instruments of a given performance management structure would include management by objectives, quality management, benchmarking, controlling and case management (Nunn and Morgan, 2020;Nunn, 2018;European Commission, 2012;Weishaupt, 2010;Mosle et al, 2001). As pointed out, the NPM understanding is informed by public choice theory developing an incentive-based agency account of public institutions (Considine et al, 2018(Considine et al, , 1188 and principal-agent model (Weishaupt, 2010;Mosley et al, 2001) according to which the central level of policy making, usually governments, specify policy goals and then centrally set objectives are operationalized at lower-level agents on the basis of quantifiable measures, targets and indicators.…”

Section: Performance Management In Employment Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management Reforms in Activation Programmes and Public Employment Services The Turkish Case

TAŞDEMIR

2022

Çalışma Ve Toplum

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There are many studies on the ways in which activation paradigm has been integrated into the reform of welfare states. Activation paradigm and related policies serve to activate citizens to take more responsibility for their own welfare through paid employment. Active labour market policies (ALMPs) have constituted one of the important policy fields in which active welfare understanding have been materialised and thus become a significant instrument of activation. These programs and relevant measures constitute formal policy reforms. There is also a rising literature on procedural policy reforms in the field of activation, which is about the ways that ALMPs are managed, that is, the governance of activation. Recent procedural reforms include measures shaped by the New Public Management thinking such as performance management or management by objectives, and the process of marketization through quasi markets. The debates on the governance of activation show the ways in which management reforms shape the content of activation reforms. This study attempts to evaluate those debates on procedural reforms in ALMPs through review of the relevant literature and based on the Turkish case. Turkey is a late comer in implementation of activation programmes but in the last two decades policy reforms both in ALMPs and in the ways formal policy reforms are governed and implemented have accelerated.

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“…Individuals' success or failure in the labour market is conceived as an internal individualised characteristic' (Nunn 2018, p.168). Therefore, employment support services are focused on ensuring that those who are unemployed enhance their employability to increase their chances of success (Nunn 2018). Employment policies have been criticised for overestimating the extent to which individuals can control their life course without taking into account structural constraints outside of the individuals' control (Johansson 2007;Haikkola 2019;Fletcher 2019;Sunnerfjell 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entanglements of Race and Opportunity Structures; Challenging Racialised Transitions for ‘the Lost Generation’

Eseonu

2021

JAYS

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Young people are increasingly referred to as the 'lost generation' because a series of worldwide crises has meant they are at a greater risk of marginalisation from the labour market. However, these risks of marginalisation have been felt more disproportionately by racially minoritised young people. This article challenges the dominant thinking and practice in youth employment policy and service delivery by examining how the entanglement between race and opportunity structures constrains racially minoritised young people's transition to employment. It argues that race structures disadvantage racially minoritised young people in the labour market, focusing primarily on employers' recruitment practices. This article pays particular attention to the role of employees in employment support services in dismantling race structures. Using qualitative data from a research project in the UK, this article concludes that employer engagement is a channel through which employees within employment support services can dismantle race structures. Through relationships with employers, employees within employment support services can mitigate risks of marginalisation for racially minoritised young people.

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Do Employment Services Need to Be Neoliberal?

Cited by 5 publications

References 40 publications

Neoliberalization, fast policy transfer and the management of labor market services

Neoliberalization, fast policy transfer and the management of labor market services

Management Reforms in Activation Programmes and Public Employment Services The Turkish Case

Entanglements of Race and Opportunity Structures; Challenging Racialised Transitions for ‘the Lost Generation’

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