Introduction: Paradoxes of Welfare

Abstract

Drawing on contemporary research in sociology and social policy, this chapter describes the landscape of the contemporary welfare state, unemployment and Jobseeking in the labour market. In particular we examine active labour market policies (ALMPs) as an increasingly pervasive form of ‘governmentality’ – a term taken from Foucauldian ‘governmentality studies’. Across the international policy landscape activation scrutinises and assesses the unemployed, monitors their jobsearches, prescribes activities like training or skills development and threatens and imposes penalty sanctions. Critics of these policies as ineffective, ideological, commodifying labour or even a cruel punitive turn are also examined. Recasting this debate, we suggest that deep cultural codes drawn from Judeo-Christian religions which value suffering as a mode of transformation are the animating of contemporary activation: the Biblical ‘Trials of Job’ where contemporary jobseekers are required to demonstrate persistent faith in the labour market despite adversity, and continuously work to transform themselves.