Startseite Unemployment in the Affective Economy: Exploring the Affective Governing of Young Unemployed People in the Danish Welfare State
Artikel
Lizenziert
Nicht lizenziert Erfordert eine Authentifizierung

Unemployment in the Affective Economy: Exploring the Affective Governing of Young Unemployed People in the Danish Welfare State

  • Sabina Pultz

    Sabina Pultz is a psychologist and received her Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Copenhagen focusing on how unemployed people are governed and how they govern themselves. As an Assistant Professor at Roskilde University, she is currently engaged in research exploring the effects of COVID-19 on unemployed people as well as how technology shapes the unemployment experience.

Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 26. Februar 2021

Abstract

This case study investigates the affective governing of young unemployed people, and it concludes that getting money in the Danish welfare state comes with an “affective price”. In the quest for a job, unemployed people have been increasingly responsibilized in order to live up to the ideal of the active jobseeker. Consequently, when faced with unemployment, they are encouraged to work harder on themselves and their motivation. Based on an interview study with young unemployed people (N=39) and field observations made at employment fund agencies in Denmark (2014–15), I explore how young unemployed people are governed by and through their emotions. By supplementing governmentality studies (Foucault et al. 1988, 2010) with the concept of “affective economy” from Ahmed (2014), I discuss how young unemployed people who receive money from the Danish state are placed in a situation of debt. The paper unfolds how this debt becomes visible as the unemployed people often describe feeling under suspicion for not doing enough, for not being motivated enough. Through an abundance of (pro) activity, they have to prove the suspicion of being lazy wrong, and through managing themselves as active jobseekers, they earn the right to get money from the state. Here motivation, passion and empowerment are key currencies. I discuss the intricate interplay between monetary and affective currencies as well as political implications in the context of the Danish welfare. The article contributes by making visible the importance of taking affective matters into account when investigating the complex relationship between politics and psychology.

About the author

Sabina Pultz

Sabina Pultz is a psychologist and received her Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Copenhagen focusing on how unemployed people are governed and how they govern themselves. As an Assistant Professor at Roskilde University, she is currently engaged in research exploring the effects of COVID-19 on unemployed people as well as how technology shapes the unemployment experience.

Bibliography

Ahmed, Sara (2014a): The Cultural Politics of Emotion 2. edition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Ahmed, Sara (2014b): Willful Subjects Durham: Duke University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Andersen, Niklas Andreas (2020): “Fra opkvalificeringseffekt til motivationseffekt: Effektevalueringers rammesætning af den aktive arbejdsmarkedspolitik“, in: Mads Peter Klindt; Stine Rasmussen; Henning Jørgensen: Aktiv arbejdsmarkedspolitik: Etablering, udvikling og fremtid Arbejdsmarkedsforhold, Nr. 2. Copenhagen: Djøf, 171–194.Suche in Google Scholar

Anderson, Ben (2012): “Affect and biopower: towards a politics of life”, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 37(1): 28–43.10.1111/j.1475-5661.2011.00441.xSuche in Google Scholar

Bacchi, Carol; Goodwin, Susan (2016): Poststructural Policy Analysis: A Guide to Practice New York: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/978-1-137-52546-8Suche in Google Scholar

Bakke, E. Wight (1933): The unemployed man: a social study London: Nisbet.Suche in Google Scholar

Bengtsson, Tea Torbenfeldt; Frederiksen, Morten; Larsen, Jørgen Elm (2015): The Danish Welfare State: A Sociological Investigation New York: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9781137527318Suche in Google Scholar

Bergmark, Åke; Palme, Joakim (2003): “Welfare and the unemployment crisis: Sweden in the 1990s”, International Journal of Social Welfare 12(2): 108–122.10.1111/1468-2397.00249Suche in Google Scholar

Binderkrantz, Anne Skorkjær; Andersen, Lotte Bøgh (2011): “Guide til NVivo”.Suche in Google Scholar

Bjerg, Helle; Staunæs, Dorthe (2011): “Self-management through shame – uniting governmentality studies and the ‘affective turn’, ephemera 11(2): 138–156.Suche in Google Scholar

Boland, Tom; Griffin, Ray (2015): “The Death of Unemployment and the Birth of Job-Seeking in Welfare Policy: Governing a Liminal Experience”, Irish Journal of Sociology 23(2): 29–48.10.7227/IJS.23.2.3Suche in Google Scholar

Boltanski, Luc; Chiapello, Ève (2007): The New Spirit of Capitalism London: Verso.Suche in Google Scholar

Brown, Steven D.; Stenner, Paul (2009): Psychology without foundations: history, philosophy and psychosocial theory London: Sage.10.4135/9781446269268Suche in Google Scholar

Brøgger, Katja; Staunæs, Dorthe (2016): “Standards and (self)implosion: How the circulation of affects accelerates the spread of standards and intensifies the embodiment of colliding, temporal ontologies”, Theory & Psychology 26(2): 223–242.10.1177/0959354316635889Suche in Google Scholar

Burchell, Graham D.; Miller, Peter; Gordon, Colin (2003): The Foucault effect: studies in governmentality, with two lectures by and an interview with Michel Foucault Reprint. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Butler, Judith (2007): Gender trouble, feminism and the subversion of identity 2. edition, reprint.. New York: Routledge.Suche in Google Scholar

Caswell, Dorte; Marston, Greg; Larsen, Jørgen Elm (2010): “Unemployed citizen or ’at risk’ client? Classification systems and employment services in Denmark and Australia”, Critical Social Policy 30(3): 384–404.10.1177/0261018310367674Suche in Google Scholar

Clarke, John (2005): “New Labour’s Citizens: activated, empowered, responsibilized, abandoned?”, Critical Social Policy 25(4): 447–463.10.1177/0261018305057024Suche in Google Scholar

Cromby, John (2012): “Feeling the Way: Qualitative Clinical Research and the Affective Turn”, Qualitative Research in Psychology 9(1): 88–98.10.1080/14780887.2012.630831Suche in Google Scholar

Cromby, John (2015): Feeling bodies: Embodying psychology Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9781137380586Suche in Google Scholar

Cromby, John; Willis, Martin E. H. (2014): “Nudging into subjectification: Governmentality and psychometrics”. Critical Social Policy 34(2): 241–259.10.1177/0261018313500868Suche in Google Scholar

Cruikshank, Barbara (1999): The Will to Empower: Democratic Citizens and Other Subjects Ithaca: Cornell University Press.10.7591/9781501733918Suche in Google Scholar

Daguerre, Anne (2007): Active Labour Market Policies and Welfare Reform: Europe and the US in Comparative Perspective New York: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9780230582231Suche in Google Scholar

D’Aoust, Anne-Marie (2014): “Ties that Bind? Engaging Emotions, Governmentality and Neoliberalism: Introduction to the Special Issue”, Global Society 28(3): 267–276.10.1080/13600826.2014.900743Suche in Google Scholar

Davies, Bronwyn (2006): “Subjectification: the relevance of Butler’s analysis for education”, British Journal of Sociology of Education 27(4): 425–438.10.4324/9780429470950-2Suche in Google Scholar

Davies, Bronwyn; Dormer, Suzy; Gannon, Sue; Laws, Cath; Lenz Taguchi, Hillevi; McCann, Helen; Rocco, Sharn (2001): “Becoming schoolgirls: the ambivalent project of subjectification”, Gender and Education 13(2): 167–182.10.1080/09540250124848Suche in Google Scholar

Dean, Hartley (2004): “Popular discourse and the ethical deficiency of ‘Third Way’ conceptions of citizenship”, Citizenship Studies 8(1): 65–82.10.1080/1362102042000178391Suche in Google Scholar

Dean, Mitchell (1995): “Governing the unemployed self in an active society”, Economy and Society 24(4): 559–583.10.1080/03085149500000025Suche in Google Scholar

Dean, Mitchell (2007): Governing societies, political perspectives on domestic and international rule Maidenhead et al.: Open University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Dean, Mitchell (2010): Governmentality, Power and Rule in Modern Society 2. edition. London: Sage.Suche in Google Scholar

Deleuze, Gilles (1992): “Postscript on the Societies of Control”, October 59: 3–7.10.4324/9781315242002-3Suche in Google Scholar

Engelbreth Larsen, Rune (2013): Ledighed og ledighad: Kritisk analyse af et politisk normskred Aarhus: Dana.Suche in Google Scholar

Esping-Andersen, Gøsta (1990): The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism . Cambridge: Policy Press.10.1177/095892879100100108Suche in Google Scholar

Ezzy, Douglas (1993): “Unemployment and mental health: A critical review”, Social Science & Medicine 37(1): 41–52.10.4324/9781315248394-2Suche in Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel (1982): “The Subject and Power”, Critical Inquiry 8(4): 777–795.10.1086/448181Suche in Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel (1993): “About the Beginning of the Hermeneutics of the Self: Two Lectures at Dartmouth”, Political Theory 21(2): 198–227.10.1177/0090591793021002004Suche in Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel (1995): Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison 2. edition. New York: Vintage.Suche in Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel (2003): “Truth and Power”, in: Paul Rabinow; Nikolas S. Rose (eds.): The Essential Foucault: selections from essential works of Foucault 1954–1984 London: New Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel (2008): The birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979 Basingstoke et al.: Palgrave Macmillan.Suche in Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel (2010): The government of self and others: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1982–1983 Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9780230274730Suche in Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel; Davidson, Arnold I. (2013): Lectures on the Will to Know Basingstoke et al.: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9781137044860Suche in Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel; Lotringer, Sylvère (ed.) (2007): The politics of truth Los Angeles: Semiotexte.Suche in Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel; Martin, Luther H.; Gutman, Huck; Hutton, Patrick H. (1988). Technologies of the self – a seminar with Michel Foucault London: Tavistock.Suche in Google Scholar

Fryer, David (2019): “Applied Social Psychologies, the Neoliberal Labour-Market Subject and Critique”, in: Kiran C. O’Doherty; Darrin Hodgetts (2019): The SAGE handbook of applied social psychology. London: Sage.Suche in Google Scholar

Fryer; Stambe (2014)Suche in Google Scholar

Greco, Monica; Stenner, Paul (2013): “Happiness and the Art of Life: Diagnosing the psychopolitics of wellbeing”, Health, Culture and Society 5(1): 1–18.10.5195/HCS.2013.147Suche in Google Scholar

Hansen, Magnus Paulsen (2019): The moral economy of activation: Ideas, politics and policies Bristol: Policy Press.10.1332/policypress/9781447349969.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar

Harsløf, Ivan; Ulmestig, Rickard (2015): Changing Social Risks and Social Policy Responses in the Nordic Welfare States London: Palgrave.Suche in Google Scholar

Hochschild, Arlie Russell (1983): The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Hull Kristensen, Peer (2014): “The Distinctiveness of Nordic Welfare States in the Transformation to the Projective City and the New Spirits of Capitalism”, in: Paul du Gay; Glenn Morgan (eds.): New Spirits of Capitalism? Crises, Justifications, and Dynamics Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199595341.003.0009Suche in Google Scholar

Immervoll, Herwig (2012): Activation policies in OECD countries: an overview of current approaches. Social Protection and Labor Policy Note No. 71903. The World Bank, Labor Markets No. 14, June 2012.10.1186/2193-9004-1-9Suche in Google Scholar

Jahoda, Marie (1982): Employment and Unemployment: A Social-psychological Analysis Cambridge: CUP Archive.Suche in Google Scholar

Jørgensen, Henning (2009): “From a Beautiful Swan to an Ugly Duckling: The Renewal of Danish Activation Policy since 2003”, European Journal of Social Security 11(4): 337–367.10.1177/138826270901100401Suche in Google Scholar

Jørgensen, Martin Bak; Thomsen, Trine Lund (2016): “Deservingness in the Danish context: Welfare chauvinism in times of crisis”, Critical Social Policy 36(3): 330–351.10.1177/0261018315622012Suche in Google Scholar

Juelskjær, Malou; Staunæs, Dorthe (2016): “Designing leadership chairs. Experiments with affirmative critique of leadership and environmentality”, Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology 7(2): 35–51.10.7577/rerm.1840Suche in Google Scholar

Juelskjær, Malou; Staunæs, Dorthe; Ratner, Helene (2013): “The return of the Freudian Couch®: managing affectivity through technologies of comfort”, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 26(9): 1132–1152.Kalleberg, Arne L. (2018): Precarious Lives: Job Insecurity and Well-Being in Rich Democracies Newark: Polity Press.10.1080/09518398.2013.816885Suche in Google Scholar

Knudsen, Hanne; Khawaja, Iram (2016): “Vilje til selvinklusion: Når fællesskabet står og falder med den enkelte elevs forhold til sig selv”, Social Kritik: Tidsskrift for Social Analyse & Debat 147: 68–75.Suche in Google Scholar

Kousholt, Kristine; Krejsler, John; Nissen, Morten (eds.) (2019): At skulle ville: om motivationsarbejde og motivationens tilblivelse og effekter Aarhus: Samfundslitteratur.Suche in Google Scholar

La Cour, Anders; Waldorff, Susanne Boch; Højlund, Holger (2017): Når teknologier holder mere, end de loverkritiske perspektiver på ledelse af velfærd Frederiksberg: Nyt fra Samfundsvidenskaberne.Suche in Google Scholar

Lazzarato, Maurizio (2012): The making of the indebted man: an essay on the neoliberal condition Los Angeles: Semiotexte.Suche in Google Scholar

Lazzarato, Maurizio (2015): Governing by debt Cambridge: MIT Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Lemke, Jay L. (2001): “Articulating communities: Sociocultural perspectives on science education”, Journal of Research in Science Teaching 38(3): 296–316.10.1002/1098-2736(200103)38:3<296::AID-TEA1007>3.0.CO;2-RSuche in Google Scholar

Lemke, Thomas (2002): “Foucault, Governmentality, and Critique”. Rethinking Marxism 14(3): 49–64.10.1080/089356902101242288Suche in Google Scholar

Leys, Ruth (2011): “The Turn to Affect: A Critique”, Critical Inquiry 37(3): 434–472.10.1086/659353Suche in Google Scholar

Lorenzini, Daniele (2016): “From Counter-Conduct to Critical Attitude: Michel Foucault and the Art of Not Being Governed Quite So Much” Foucault Studies 21: 7–2110.22439/fs.v0i0.5011Suche in Google Scholar

Madsen, Per K. (2005): “How can it possibly fly? The paradox of a dynamic labour market in a Scandinavian welfare state”, in: John L. Campbell; John A. Hall; Ove K. Pedersen (eds.): National Identity and the Varieties of Capitalism – the Danish Experience Copenhagen: Djøf: 321–355.Suche in Google Scholar

Mckee-Ryan, Frances M.; Song, Zhaoli; Wanberg, Connie R. (2005): “Psychological and Physical Well-Being During Unemployment: A Meta-Analytic Study”, Journal of Applied Psychology 90(1): 53–76.10.1037/0021-9010.90.1.53Suche in Google Scholar

Newman, Katherine S. (1988): Falling from Grace: The Experience of Downward Mobility in the American Middle Class New York: The Free Press.10.1525/9780520341265Suche in Google Scholar

Nielsen, Mathias H.; Danneris, Sophie; Andersen, Niklas A. (2020): “The silent expansion of welfare to work policies: How policies are enhanced through the use of categorizations, evidence-based knowledge and self-governance”, in: Anja Eleveld; Thomas Kampen; Josien Arts (eds.): Welfare to Work in Contemporary European Welfare States: Legal, Sociological and Philosophical Perspectives on Justice and Domination Bristol: Policy Press, 163–188.10.1332/policypress/9781447340010.003.0008Suche in Google Scholar

Noble, Greg (2006): “Book Review: Blush – Faces of Shame. The Cultural Politics of Emotion”, International Journal of Cultural Studies 9(2): 249–253.10.1177/1367877906064033Suche in Google Scholar

Paul, Karsten I.; Moser, Klaus (2009): “Unemployment Impairs Mental Health: Meta-analyses”, Journal of Vocational Behavior 74(3): 264–282.10.1016/j.jvb.2009.01.001Suche in Google Scholar

Pedersen, Ove Kaj (2011): Konkurrencestaten Copenhagen: Hans Reitzel.Suche in Google Scholar

Pultz, Sabina (2017): It’s Not You, It’s Me: Governing the Unemployed Self in the Danish Welfare State. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Social Sciences.Suche in Google Scholar

Pultz, Sabina (2018): “Shame and passion: The affective governing of young unemployed people”, Theory & Psychology 28(3): 358–381.10.1177/0959354318759608Suche in Google Scholar

Pultz, Sabina (forthcoming): “Networking against the wind – young unemployed people and emotional labour”, Norsk sociologisk tidsskriftSuche in Google Scholar

Pultz, Sabina; Sharone, Ofer (forthcoming): “The intimate dance of networking: a cross-national comparison of the emotional labor of American and Danish Job seekers”, Journal of Research on social workSuche in Google Scholar

Raffnsøe, Sverre; Gudmand-Høyer, Marius T.; Thaning, Morten S. (2016): Michel Foucault: A Research Companion. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9781137351029Suche in Google Scholar

Rose, Nikolas (1996): Inventing our selves. Psychology, Power, and Personhood Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511752179Suche in Google Scholar

Sharone, Ofer (2013): “Why Do Unemployed Americans Blame Themselves While Israelis Blame the System?”, Social Forces 91(4): 1429–1450.10.1093/sf/sot050Suche in Google Scholar

Staunæs, Dorthe (2011): “Governing the potentials of life itself? Interrogating the promises in affective educational leadership”, Journal of Educational Administration and History 43(3): 227–247.10.1080/00220620.2011.586454Suche in Google Scholar

Unemployment benefit commission (2015): Unemployment benefit commission recommendations. Unemployment benefit commission, Copenhagen.Suche in Google Scholar

Vallas, Stephen; Cummins, Emily (2015): “Personal Branding and Identity Norms in the Popular Business Press: Enterprise Culture in an Age of Precarity”, Organization Studies 36(3): 293–319.10.1177/0170840614563741Suche in Google Scholar

Vansteenkiste, Marten; Lens, Willy; De Witte, Hans; Feather, Norman (2005): “Understanding unemployed people’s job search behaviour, unemployment experience and well-being: A comparison of expectancy-value theory and self-determination theory”, British Journal of Social Psychology 44(2): 269–287.10.1348/014466604X17641Suche in Google Scholar

Van Wijk, Eelco; Mascini, Peter (2019): “The responsibilization of entrepreneurs in legalized local prostitution in The Netherlands”, Regulation & Governance, 19. August 2019. Download at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/rego.12273 (access on 19.11.2020).Suche in Google Scholar

Walters, William (1994): “The discovery of ‘unemployment’: New forms for the government of poverty”, Economy and Society 23(3): 265–290.10.1080/03085149400000006Suche in Google Scholar

Walters, William (2000): Unemployment and government genealogies of the social Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511557798Suche in Google Scholar

Weishaupt, J. Timo (2011): From the manpower revolution to the activation paradigm: explaining institutional continuity and change in an integrating Europe. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.10.5117/9789089642523Suche in Google Scholar

Wetherell, Margaret (2012): Affect and emotion, a new social science understanding London: Sage.10.4135/9781446250945Suche in Google Scholar

Wetherell, Margaret (2015): “Trends in the turn to affect: A social psychological critique”, Body & Society 21(2): 139–166.10.1177/1357034X14539020Suche in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2021-02-26
Published in Print: 2020-09-25

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 1.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/zsr-2020-0015/html?lang=de
Button zum nach oben scrollen