The active society and activation policy: ideologies, contexts and effects

Larsen, Jørgen Elm

doi:10.1332/policypress/9781861345929.003.0008

Cited by 15 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…Kvist 2001). The results of the analysis presented in this paper are more in line with interpretations arguing that the practised activation measures may further marginalise the 'activated' (Gallie 2004;Elm Larsen 2005;Holmqvist 2010;Blasco and Rosholm 2011). Correspondingly, the measures have been criticised for (a) tending to concentrate on 'activation' operations instead of helping the unemployed find work (Haikkola 2015), (b) perceiving the main problem to be the benefit claimants themselves rather than their unemployment, (c) being unable to tackle insider-outsider divisions, and (d) embodying a generally neoliberal agenda (Clarke 2005;Bambra and Smith 2010;Caswell et al 2010;Kananen 2012).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Dualising activation. Responses to unemployment and mental health-related disability retirement in Finland at the turn of the millennium

Alanko

Outinen

2016

European Societies

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Activation', referring to measures that increase the labour supply, has recently been a key concept in discussing employment in the developed countries. This paper analyses the motivations behind activation measures targeted at the unemployed as well as persons disabled due to mental health problems, as expressed through legislation and national policy documents following the 1990s recession in Finland. The analysis points out that the activation measures implemented in Finland at the turn of the millennium have had a tendency to reinforce 'dualisation', that is, to polarise citizens as either labour market insiders or outsiders. The analysis shows that activation also involves labels that fix blame on the people themselves for their situation. Hence, the activation measures have increased the risk of exclusion for many of the persons they were supposed to help. The results are discussed in the context of the broader literature on the Nordic welfare and labour market model.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Dualising activation. Responses to unemployment and mental health-related disability retirement in Finland at the turn of the millennium

Alanko

Outinen

2016

European Societies

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“…Unemployment benefits have always been conditional on unemployment being involuntary, with an expectation of active job search. It is the increasingly sharp policy focus on individual behaviour that is new (Larsen, 2001). The introduction of JSA in October 1996 was an important landmark that represented a fundamental change in the rights and responsibilities of the unemployed (Finn, 1996).…”

Section: Workfare In the New Millenniummentioning

confidence: 99%

Workfare – a Blast from the Past? Contemporary Work Conditionality for the Unemployed in Historical Perspective

Fletcher¹

2014

Social Policy & Society

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During 2011 the UK Government introduced the Mandatory Work Activity scheme which requires JSA claimants to work in order to continue receiving benefit. Workfare has been viewed as a radical departure in the evolution of British labour market policy. However, an historical review of workfare in inter-war Britain reveals that the most recent proposals merely resuscitate a heritage of compelling the long-term unemployed to work for their benefit. Both then and now workfare has flourished in times of economic crisis and particularly where Governments have pursued economic theories which exalt the market. Historical analysis reveals important continuities and changes in the nature of contemporary workfare.

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“…Within the framework of social activation, labour activation is propagated as a key measure to preserve and develop human resources, open outlets for individual activity and secure routes for framing equal social status and full participation in society (Larsen ; Thoren ). Whether labour‐activation schemes achieve their aims remains a highly contested issue: many question their meaningfulness and effectiveness (see Holmqvist ; Ronsen ; van Hal et al .…”

Section: Exploring Labour Activationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Grounding the research among post-Soviet-immigrant newcomers in Germany, and focusing on cases of those who, having failed to secure sustained employment, found themselves the targets of, or got involved voluntarily in, projects offered in the framework of labour-activation policies, this article asks whether the promise of empowerment through responsibilisation and activation turned, for those involved, into more than just a promise. and secure routes for framing equal social status and full participation in society (Larsen 2005;Thoren 2008). Whether labour-activation schemes achieve their aims remains a highly contested issue: many question their meaningfulness and effectiveness (see Holmqvist 2009;Ronsen 2009; van Hal et al 2012;van Oorschot and Abrahamson 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Labour activation policies and the seriousness of simulated work

Roberman

2014

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

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Labour activation is an integral part of neo-liberal policies that attempt to tackle the problem of employment and employability in the context of the drastically changing institution of work. Reflecting the difficulty of sustaining old frameworks, labour activation, as this ethnography reveals, is anchored in circles of simulative performances of employability and work. People's motivations to work blur the boundaries between the 'simulative' and the 'real' and performances of the seriousness of work are turned into serious acts of work. This fuels activation programmes in particular and nourishes neo-liberal doctrine in general. But where does it leave the actors themselves?

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The active society and activation policy: ideologies, contexts and effects

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

Dualising activation. Responses to unemployment and mental health-related disability retirement in Finland at the turn of the millennium

Dualising activation. Responses to unemployment and mental health-related disability retirement in Finland at the turn of the millennium

Workfare – a Blast from the Past? Contemporary Work Conditionality for the Unemployed in Historical Perspective

Labour activation policies and the seriousness of simulated work

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