 | Frontline Delivery of Welfare-to-Work Policies in Europe: Activating the Unemployed Subjects: Economics Finance Business & Industry; Politics & International Relations; Social Sciences; Public Administration & Management; Economics; Regulatory Policy; Sociology & Social Policy; Public Policy; Social Policy; Social Policy; Sociology of Work & Industry; Labour Economics; 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. Rik van Berkel is an associate professor at the Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. His research interests are situated on the interface of social policy, public administration and public organization studies, and include welfare state transformations, implementing new models for the provision of social services, and processes of change in public organizations. Dorte Caswell is an associate professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University, Denmark. She is the head of SAB, a research group focusing on social work at the frontline of active labour market and social policy. Her research focuses on social work under the canopy of active labour market and social policy. Peter Kupka is a senior researcher at the Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany. His research interests include processes of counselling and job placement, the situation of - and case work for - unemployed persons with mental health problems. Flemming Larsen is a professor at the Centre for Labour Market Research (CARMA), Aalborg University, Denmark. His research focuses on labour market and social policy. One major research topic has been labour market models. Another important field of research is analyses of labour market and social policy reforms, studying changes (and trends) in policies. |
