Rik van Berkel – författare

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.

Frist published in 1997, this book aims to answer if European ‘post-national’ citizenship provide a practical opening and a conceptual challenge to cope with the diverse and close-circuiting crises of national European social models? What then might a new sphere of European social inclusion look like? This book also provided the first attempt to go well beyond ‘national gridlock’. Old solutions will no longer do. Is new land in sight? With monetary integration almost implemented this is a highly relevant exploration of a central complementary ‘common currency’ in Europe’s future.

Frist published in 1997, this book aims to answer if European ‘post-national’ citizenship provide a practical opening and a conceptual challenge to cope with the diverse and close-circuiting crises of national European social models? What then might a new sphere of European social inclusion look like? This book also provided the first attempt to go well beyond ‘national gridlock’. Old solutions will no longer do. Is new land in sight? With monetary integration almost implemented this is a highly relevant exploration of a central complementary ‘common currency’ in Europe’s future.

First published in 1998, this volume describes and analyses organizations of social security claimants and their position in the field of force of the national welfare state in six European countries: representing a diversity of welfare state regimes. The authors analyse these organizations, and their strengths and weaknesses, from a variety of theoretical perspectives: such as the opportunity structures of welfare states and national political relations, the fragmentation of the social movements of social security claimants along ideological and categorical lines, the (im)possibilities of organizing socially highly marginalized groups etc. The volume also contains an introduction and an epilogue, as well as a chapter dealing with the relations between collective and individual forms of social resistance.

First published in 1998, this volume describes and analyses organizations of social security claimants and their position in the field of force of the national welfare state in six European countries: representing a diversity of welfare state regimes. The authors analyse these organizations, and their strengths and weaknesses, from a variety of theoretical perspectives: such as the opportunity structures of welfare states and national political relations, the fragmentation of the social movements of social security claimants along ideological and categorical lines, the (im)possibilities of organizing socially highly marginalized groups etc. The volume also contains an introduction and an epilogue, as well as a chapter dealing with the relations between collective and individual forms of social resistance.

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.

This book challenges the underlying presupposition that regular employment is the royal road to inclusion. Drawing on original empirical research, it investigates the inclusionary and exclusionary potentials of different types of work, including activation programmes.Active social policies in the EU makes an important contribution to the debates in this area by:reporting on original international comparative research;reflecting on and critically assessing current activating policies;evaluating the consequences of these policies, as well as challenging the premises they are based on;including the perspectives of service users in its analyses; offering recommendations for the future design of activating policies.The book will be invaluable for students, lecturers and researchers of social and labour market policies and policy makers. It is essential reading for those interested in issues of inclusion, activation and the role of types of work in promoting inclusion.