The street-level delivery of activation policies: constraints and possibilities for a practice of citizenship

Nothdurfter, Urban

doi:10.4324/9781315206929-9

Cited by 6 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Professionalisation is often presented as an answer to this critique. Scholars understand professionalisation of activation workers as the development of systemic, reflective use of power (Nothdurfter, 2016), values (Kjørstad, 2005), judgement (McDonald & Marston, 2005), knowledge and discretion (Van Berkel et al, 2010), based on shared standards. Explication of a personalised approach serves the professionalisation of activation workers by contributing to this development.…”

Section: A Personalised Approach In Activationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, when authors discuss and promote a personalised approach, they refer to common social work terms such as empathy (McDonald & Marston, 2005), direct contact (Nothdurfter, 2016), working relationally (Hall, Boddy, Chenoweth, & Davie, 2012), or respecting autonomy (Hauss, 2014). These terms represent a focus on the actual approach, but less on what makes the approach personal in the sense of considering personal actions, views, feelings or thoughts.…”

Section: A Personalised Approach In Activationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is largely due to the fact that the profession of activation work is 'still in its infancy' (Van Berkel & Van der Aa, 2012, p. 498). Even though activation workers' discretion has increased (Van Berkel & Van der Aa, 2012), activation work is still an underdeveloped profession (Nothdurfter, 2016) in most activating welfare states, lacking shared debates on its organisational and societal position (Provencher & Richard, 2010), as well as on its body of knowledge and methods (Van Berkel & Van der Aa, 2012;Nothdurfter, 2016).…”

Section: A Personalised Approach In Activationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A personalised approach in activation. Workfare volunteers’ experiences with activation practitioners

Kampen¹,

Tonkens

2018

European Journal of Social Work

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In activation worksupporting jobless people to perform activities that are supposed to lead them back to paid worka personalised approach is deemed crucial. What a personalised approach entails, however, remains unclear. In this article, we try to further develop the notion of a personalised approach in activation work, by analysing Dutch workfare volunteers' experiences with activation. Our interviews show that a personalised approach appears as a process with three stages. In the first stage, personalised means paying attention to welfare clients' personal histories, particularly their 'violated life story'. In the second stage, personalised means being sensitive to the new reality of them being volunteers. In the third stage, personalised means paying attention to the future, especially to the prospect of paid work. Our findings contribute to the theorisation of a personalised approach in activation work to which time turns out to be a crucial dimension. SAMENVATTING Bij activeringswerkhet ondersteunen van werklozen om activiteiten uit te voeren die hen zouden moeten leiden naar betaald werkwordt een gepersonaliseerde benadering cruciaal geacht. Wat een gepersonaliseerde aanpak inhoudt, blijft echter onduidelijk. In dit artikel proberen we de notie van een gepersonaliseerde benadering in activeringswerk verder te ontwikkelen door de ervaringen van Nederlandse geleide vrijwilligers met activering te analyseren. Onze interviews laten zien dat een gepersonaliseerde benadering te begrijpen is als een proces met drie fasen. Gepersonaliseerd betekent dat in de eerste fase aandacht wordt geschonken aan de persoonlijke geschiedenis van bijstandscliënten, met name aan hun 'geschonden levensverhaal'. In de tweede fase betekent gepersonaliseerd dat activeringswerkers gevoelig zijn voor de nieuwe realiteit van vrijwilliger-zijn. In de derde fase betekent gepersonaliseerd aandacht schenken aan de toekomst, vooral met het oog op betaald werk. Onze bevindingen dragen bij aan theorie over een gepersonaliseerde benadering in activeringswerk, waarin tijd een cruciale dimensie blijkt te zijn.

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Section: A Personalised Approach In Activationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Personalised Approach In Activationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Personalised Approach In Activationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A personalised approach in activation. Workfare volunteers’ experiences with activation practitioners

Kampen¹,

Tonkens

2018

European Journal of Social Work

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“…Various studies showed that workers may use discretion in rather diverse ways, resulting in diversity in treating and servicing clients. This points to the risk that frontline delivery becomes a rather individualized and potentially even arbitrary process (Eikenaar, De Rijk, & Meershoek, 2015;Nothdurfter, 2016). This issue is directly related to the second debate in studies of the frontline delivery of activation: the management of frontline work and the room for professionalism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The frontline delivery of activation: workers’ preferences and their antecedents

Berkel

Knies

2017

European Journal of Social Work

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This article intends to contribute to the increasing body of academic literature on the frontline delivery of activation policies. In line with the broader literature on frontline work, this literature focuses attention on frontline delivery practices and preferences and how these can be explained. Activation work is an interesting case in this context, because activation workers' jobs designs vary considerably and workers have a diversity of educational backgrounds (including but not limited to social work) in the many countries that have implemented activation policies. This article looks at workers' preferences rather than actual delivery practices. It analyses how job design and educational background are related to workers' preferences concerning servicing clients, managing activation workers and spending time on various activation-related activities. Although the findings of the research that are presented in the article show that educational background and job design play only a modest role as antecedents of workers' preferences, future research into this issue remains interesting. For it may help to increase our insights into the optimal match between what activation aims to achieve and how the provision of activation is organized on the one hand, and workers' skills/qualifications and job design on the other hand. SAMENVATTING Dit artikel draagt bij aan het toenemende academische onderzoek naar de wijze waarop activeringsbeleid in praktijk wordt uitgevoerd. Dit onderzoek richt de aandacht op handelingspraktijken en voorkeuren van uitvoerders (in Nederland 'klantmanagers' genoemd) en op de vraag hoe die kunnen worden verklaard. Activering is een interessante casus omdat taken en verantwoordelijkheden van uitvoerders heel divers zijn, en omdat uitvoerders in de landen waar activeringsbeleid is ingevoerd zeer diverse opleidingsachtergronden hebben. Onder de uitvoerders bevinden zich sociaal werkers, maar zij domineren dit werkveld zeker niet. Dit artikel richt zich op de voorkeuren (en niet zozeer de praktijken) van uitvoerders. Het analyseert hoe de taakomschrijving en de opleidingachtergrond van uitvoerders samenhangen met hun voorkeuren ten aanzien van de dienstverlening aan klanten, de wijze waarop uitvoerders gemanaged willen worden en de tijd die ze wensen te besteden aan diverse activiteiten in het kader van activeringsdienstverlening. Hoewel we tot de

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“…unemployed individual muddies the picture of 'what works', as policy measures and programmes are essentially transformed through their very delivery. Street-level literature, nevertheless, demonstrates that WtW policies have a great (often negative) impact on the lives and experiences of the unemployed, even though the long-term effects in terms of labour market participation, as described previously, may be limited (e.g Dubois, 2010;Møller and Stone, 2013;Carter and Whitworth, 2015;Nothdurfter, 2016)…”

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confidence: 99%

Reconsidering ‘What Works’ in Welfare-to-Work with the Vulnerable Unemployed: The Potential of Relational Causality as an Alternative Approach

Dall¹,

Danneris²

2019

Social Policy and Society

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There is growing interest in research that informs more effective practices in employment services across Europe, Australia and the USA. However, despite the ever-expanding amount of research on the implementation and efficacy of various policy programmes in practice, the knowledge on how to bring unemployed individuals closer to the labour market remains ambiguous and inconclusive. This is especially so in the context of the more vulnerable unemployed, who face physical, mental and social challenges in addition to unemployment. In this article, we examine the existing literature in terms of its potential to inform (the development of) effective employment policies. On this basis, we outline an alternative approach based on the concept of relational causality, and discuss the implications of such an approach for applied policy research.

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The street-level delivery of activation policies: constraints and possibilities for a practice of citizenship

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

A personalised approach in activation. Workfare volunteers’ experiences with activation practitioners

A personalised approach in activation. Workfare volunteers’ experiences with activation practitioners

The frontline delivery of activation: workers’ preferences and their antecedents

Reconsidering ‘What Works’ in Welfare-to-Work with the Vulnerable Unemployed: The Potential of Relational Causality as an Alternative Approach

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