Re‐learning to labour? ‘Activation Works’ and new politics of social assistance in the case of Slovak Roma

Abstract

Based on fieldwork among Roma/Gypsy groups in Slovakia, this essay explores the concept of ‘activation (to) work’ along the shifting lines of economic precariousness and the new politics of social assistance targeting formally unemployed subjects in the context of a neoliberalizing state. Focusing on how ideologies and policies of activation operate in everyday practices, the essay dissects lived experiences and the forms of sociability emerging in these spaces constituted by the centrifugal forces of the state. Particular attention is paid to the contested meanings, politics of waiting, and acts of compassion elicited by subjects’ labour and work simulations.

(Im)mobility Subcontracted: Nesting Hierarchies, Uneven Distributions and the ‘Roma Inclusion’ Projects in Europe

“…Paradoxically, the disjointed nature of projects can also provide certain autonomy and independence from -at times even resistance to -existing dominant nation-state and institutional structures operating in the field of Roma development and policies, which have been saturated by the hauntings of the past and by the more recent shi from welfare to punitive workfare (cf. van Baar, 2012;Grill, 2018b).…”

“…In this sense, it is not based on one particular research project but rather reflects an accumulation of observations across different periods of research since 2005. Most of my long-term empirical projects were carried out in Slovakia and in Great Britain (Grill, 2012a;Grill, 2012b;Grill, 2018a;Grill, 2018b) but I have also participated in various applied research projects evaluating particular schemes and EU-funded projects in Slovakia (see Škobla, Grill, Hurrle, 2016;Hurrle, Grill, Ivanov, Kling, Škobla, 2012). is long-term trajectory and experiences inform the reflections for this article.…”

Mundane Populism: Politics, Practices and Discourses of Roma Oppression in Rural Slovakia

“…Such projects also had one unintended effect: they unduly shifted the focus of authorities and politicians away from structural problems to 'agency' issues -the behaviour, motivation, and attitudes of individuals (Škobla et al 2016). In doing so, they contributed to blurring the structural essence of the social-economic problems, which rests not in the behaviour or attitudes, but rather, in the neoliberal economic restructuring (Grill 2018).…”

“…). In doing so, they contributed to blurring the structural essence of the social‐economic problems, which rests not in the behaviour or attitudes, but rather, in the neoliberal economic restructuring (Grill ).…”

European social anthropology in 2018: an increasingly recursive public

“…In that spirit, contributors to the special issue try to offer the most expansive possible sampling of relationships between labour and capital, seeking to avoid limiting the concept to wage labour (Cant ; Martin ; Narotzky ; Yanagisako ). Here, they make a deliberate decision to focus both on the now much‐discussed precariat (Grill ; Harvey ; Eriksen and Schober 2018), but also the persistence of the state and far more stable labour relations among certain privileged groups (Campbell ; Hoëm ; Krohn‐Hansen ). These authors all seem to be promoting the idea that, as Harvey and Krohn‐Hansen frame it, even anthropologists who ‘might not necessarily see themselves as working primarily on economic relations’ can still use labour as ‘a means of extending thought as we attempt to find ways to respond to the challenges of our contemporary world’ (2018: 28).…”