Empowerment and Disempowerment of Workfare Volunteers: A Diachronic Approach to Activation Policy in the Netherlands

Enterprise discourses in Dutch urban policies; a comparison between two cities in the Netherlands

“…They found that experiences of disempowerment or empowerment are dependent on the approach of the caseworker and how they engage with the changing needs of welfare recipients in the course of time. Kampen and Tonkens (2018) conclude that 'workfare policies can be exploitative or humiliating at one stage but empowering at another'. We have chosen to highlight this case because it shows that even though the language of enterprise is dominant in urban policy, this does not mean that it is not being resisted in practice.…”

“…The argument is that when welfare recipients do something in return for their benefit, they gain work experience which helps them to find a paid job faster. Because the mandatory voluntary work welfare recipients need to undertake is often of little additional value for finding a job or improving their social status and position in society, it has received a considerable amount of criticism stating that this policy is 'humiliating' and 'harassing' welfare recipients (Kampen and Tonkens 2018). In different newspapers, images of welfare recipients picking up litter from the streets or collecting garbage (Van der Linden 2015; Cats 2015; Walstra 2015; De Koning 2016) and stories of employees such as street sweepers and home care workers who got unemployed because welfare recipients took over their jobs arose (Cats 2015).…”

“…Especially welfare recipients who are deemed least employable (for whom investing in training and skills-upgrading would lead to high expenditures) might be trapped in doing mandatory voluntary work. Kampen and Tonkens (2018) provide a more nuanced view. They found that experiences of disempowerment or empowerment are dependent on the approach of the caseworker and how they engage with the changing needs of welfare recipients in the course of time.…”

A Research Agenda for Civil Society

“…Thus, coercing volunteer participation can be counterproductive and ineffective (Kampen & Tonkens, 2019a). Furthermore, mandatory programmes will make volunteers feel unhappy, controlled and dependent, decreasing intrinsic motivation to volunteer (Kampen & Tonkens, 2019b). The expectation to actively participate in volunteering activities often puts a mental strain on volunteers.…”

‘Working With the Whole Person’: Employability Keyworker Experiences of Supporting People Furthest From the Labour Market

“…Drawing on in-depth interviews with thirteen employability keyworkers, we enhance the emergent body of literature exploring frontline employability specialists' views and practices (Henry and Lucca, 2004;Barnes et al, 2017;Johnson et al, 2021;Bakkeli, 2022;McDowell et al, 2022). We build on themes of recent publications in this journal (Danneris and Caswell, 2019;Kampen and Tonkens, 2019;Lindsay et al, 2019;Whitworth, 2019;Ravn and Bregaard, 2021), which have explored the 'ingredients of success' (Danneris and Caswell, 2019) in what supports vulnerable jobseekers into employment or education. However, in taking a detailed focus on the lived experience of employability practitioners, our analysis surfaces both strengths and challenges inherent in more person-centred approaches to employment support.…”