Thirteen How do activation policies affect social citizenship? The issue of autonomy
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Silke Bothfeld
Abstract
While employment regulation is clearly lagging behind the development of insecure employment practices, as Silke Bothfeld and Sigrid Betzelt’s chapter indicates, social protection policy is shoring up their expansion. In reconsidering the decommodifying effects of social policy in the contemporary work-welfare nexus, the authors’ use of the concept of ‘autonomy’ provides an alternative means to establish the impact of changes in a state-citizen relations located in the rise of ‘activation’ policies, and the primacy now accorded to full labour market participation. In a cross-national European comparison, their focus is the nature and form of activation policies and how these affect individual autonomy, measured by quality, status differentiation and user participation in the process of employment-related social security reform. In their overview of labour market deregulation, changes to active labour market policies and unemployment benefit schemes, the analysis demonstrates a general decline in both the quality and security afforded by employment; a trend that is accelerated by both the policy push for maximum participation and the demise of the ‘core worker’ as a referent of standards.
Abstract
While employment regulation is clearly lagging behind the development of insecure employment practices, as Silke Bothfeld and Sigrid Betzelt’s chapter indicates, social protection policy is shoring up their expansion. In reconsidering the decommodifying effects of social policy in the contemporary work-welfare nexus, the authors’ use of the concept of ‘autonomy’ provides an alternative means to establish the impact of changes in a state-citizen relations located in the rise of ‘activation’ policies, and the primacy now accorded to full labour market participation. In a cross-national European comparison, their focus is the nature and form of activation policies and how these affect individual autonomy, measured by quality, status differentiation and user participation in the process of employment-related social security reform. In their overview of labour market deregulation, changes to active labour market policies and unemployment benefit schemes, the analysis demonstrates a general decline in both the quality and security afforded by employment; a trend that is accelerated by both the policy push for maximum participation and the demise of the ‘core worker’ as a referent of standards.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Notes on contributors v
- Introduction xi
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Contemporary debates and developments in the UK
- Introducing Universal Credit 3
- Reconciling fuel poverty and climate change policy under the Coalition government: Green Deal or no deal? 23
- Doctors in the driving seat? Reforms in NHS primary care and commissioning 47
- Financing later life: pensions, care, housing equity and the new politics of old age 67
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Contributions from the Social Policy Association/East Asian Social Policy Research Network Conference of 2012
- It’s time to move on from ‘race’? The official ‘invisibilisation’ of minority ethnic disadvantage 93
- Corporations as political actors: new perspectives for health policy research 113
- Square pegs and round holes: extending existing typologies fails to capture the complexities of Chinese social policy 129
- The Earned Income Tax Credit as an anti-poverty programme: palliative or cure? 149
- Social policy and culture: the cases of Japan and South Korea 167
- Load-shedding and reloading: changes in government responsibility – the case of Israeli immigration and integration policy 2004–10 183
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Themed section: work, employment and insecurity
- ‘What unemployment means’ three decades and two recessions later 207
- Precarious employment and EU employment regulation 227
- How do activation policies affect social citizenship? The issue of autonomy 249
- Modernising social security for lone parents: avoiding fertility and unemployment traps when reforming social policy in Northern Europe 271
- Women, families and the ‘Great Recession’ in the UK 293
- Index 315
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Notes on contributors v
- Introduction xi
-
Contemporary debates and developments in the UK
- Introducing Universal Credit 3
- Reconciling fuel poverty and climate change policy under the Coalition government: Green Deal or no deal? 23
- Doctors in the driving seat? Reforms in NHS primary care and commissioning 47
- Financing later life: pensions, care, housing equity and the new politics of old age 67
-
Contributions from the Social Policy Association/East Asian Social Policy Research Network Conference of 2012
- It’s time to move on from ‘race’? The official ‘invisibilisation’ of minority ethnic disadvantage 93
- Corporations as political actors: new perspectives for health policy research 113
- Square pegs and round holes: extending existing typologies fails to capture the complexities of Chinese social policy 129
- The Earned Income Tax Credit as an anti-poverty programme: palliative or cure? 149
- Social policy and culture: the cases of Japan and South Korea 167
- Load-shedding and reloading: changes in government responsibility – the case of Israeli immigration and integration policy 2004–10 183
-
Themed section: work, employment and insecurity
- ‘What unemployment means’ three decades and two recessions later 207
- Precarious employment and EU employment regulation 227
- How do activation policies affect social citizenship? The issue of autonomy 249
- Modernising social security for lone parents: avoiding fertility and unemployment traps when reforming social policy in Northern Europe 271
- Women, families and the ‘Great Recession’ in the UK 293
- Index 315
