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Frontline Delivery of Welfare-to-Work Policies in Europe

Activating the Unemployed

Flemming Larsen editor Rik van Berkel editor Dorte Caswell editor Peter Kupka editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:12th Jul '19

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

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Frontline Delivery of Welfare-to-Work Policies in Europe cover

Welfare-to-work or activation policies refer to programmes aimed at promoting the employability, labour-market and social participation of benefit recipients of working age. Frontline workers delivering these policies are conceived of as policy implementers, as policy makers, and as actors mediating politics in an arena where conflicting interests are at stake. Frontline work plays a crucial role in determining what welfare-to-work practically means and how it affects the lives of the people it targets. Yet few books have deliberatively focused on comparing what happens when frontline workers, some of whom are professional social workers, meet clients.

Pioneering the provision of scholarly reflections on both theoretical and policy relevance of studying frontline practices of delivering activation, internationally renowned researchers present the first comparative analysis of how activation policies are actually delivered by frontline staff in selected EU countries and in the United States. In trying to understand and interpret frontline practices in activation, each contribution provides insights into what ‘activation in practice’ looks like, what services are provided and how they are enacted. This involves examining processes of client selection, monitoring, sanctioning and motivating, as well as the role of external service providers.

This book is an important acquisition for scholars and researchers of social policy, public administration, public management, social work and policy implementation.

'Welfare-to-work is one of the major shifts in welfare over the last decades. Combining national case studies and thought-provoking theoretical chapters, this book provides the reader with concrete information on the actual ‘activation’ practices and proposes an innovative framework to understand what is at stake at the frontline of the new welfare state. A must-read to grasp what ‘activation policy’ really is, and to figure out its impact on people subjected to it.' - Vincent Dubois, University of Strasbourg, France

'These studies demonstrate the importance of examining signature welfare state policies through the reactions and behavior of front-line workers. Bringing these studies of welfare-to-work policies in the United States and eight European countries together in a single volume is an impressive achievement.' - Michael Lipsky, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos, author of Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services

ISBN: 9780367371883

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 410g

220 pages