Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4rdrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T23:36:32.312Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Solidarity and Reciprocity in the Social Investment State: What Can be Learned from the Case of Flemish School Allowances and Truancy?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

BEA CANTILLON  and
WIM VAN LANCKER
BEA CANTILLON
Affiliation:
Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp, Sint Jacobstraat 2, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium email: [email protected]
WIM VAN LANCKER*
Affiliation:
Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp, Sint Jacobstraat 2, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium
*
email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this article, we discuss some of the new tensions that are emerging between the different foundations of the welfare state. Several developments have led to the advent of the social investment state, in which people are being activated and empowered instead of passively protected. We argue that this social policy shift has been accompanied by a normative shift towards a more stringent interpretation of social protection in which individual responsibility and quid pro quo have become the primordial focus. Using the Belgian (Flemish) disciplinary policy on truancy and school allowances as a case in point, we demonstrate that this social policy paradigm may have detrimental consequences for society's weakest: they will not always be able to meet the newly emerged standard of reciprocity. This implies an erosion of the ideal of social protection and encourages new forms of social exclusion. As these changes in the social policy framework are not confined to the Belgian case alone, our analysis bears relevance for all European welfare states.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , October 2012 , pp. 657 - 675
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alber, J. (2010), ‘What the European and American welfare states have in common and where they differ: facts and fiction in comparisons of the European Social Model and the United States’, Journal of European Social Policy, 20: 2, 102–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Attwooda, G. and Crollb, P. (2006), ‘Truancy in secondary school pupils: prevalence, trajectories and pupil perspectives’, Research Papers in Education, 21: 4, 467–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barr, N. (2001), The Welfare State as Piggy Bank: Information, Risk, Uncertainty, and the Role of the State, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bastagli, F. (2008), ‘Conditionality in public policy targeted to the poor: promoting resilience?’, Social Policy and Society, 8: 1, 127–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, U. (1992), Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Blome, A., Keck, W. and Alber, J. (2009), Family and the Welfare State in Europe: Intergenerational Relations in Ageing Societies, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blossfeld, H. P. (1995), The New Role of Women: Family Formation in Modern Societies, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Bonoli, G. (2005), ‘The politics of new social policies: providing coverage against new social risks in mature welfare states’, Policy and Politics, 33: 3, 431–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonoli, G. (2010), ‘The political economy of active labor-market policy’, Politics and Society, 38: 4, 435–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cantillon, B. (1989), Socio-demografische veranderingen, inkomensverdeling en sociale zekerheid 1976–1985 [Socio-Demographic Changes, Income Distribution, and Social Security], Antwerpen: Universiteit Antwerpen.Google Scholar
Cantillon, B. (2011), ‘The paradox of the social investment state. growth, employment and poverty in the Lisbon era’, Journal of European Social Policy, 21: 5, 432–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claes, E., Hooghe, M. and Reeskens, T. (2009), ‘Truancy as a contextual and school-related problem. a comparative multilevel analysis of country and school characteristics on civic knowledge among 14 year olds’, Educational Studies, 35: 2, 123–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clegg, D. (2007), ‘Continental drift: on unemployment policy change in Bismarckian welfare states’, Social Policy and Administration, 41: 6, 597–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corluy, V., Marx, I. and Verbist, G. (2011), ‘Employment chances and changes of immigrants in Belgium: the impact of citizenship’, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 52: 4, 350–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corluy, V. and Verbist, G. (2010), ‘Inkomens- en arbeidsmarktpositie van migranten in België [Income and labour market position of migrants in Belgium]’, Over.Werk, 20: 4, 85–90.Google Scholar
Cox, R. H. (1998), ‘The consequences of welfare reform: how conceptions of social rights are changing’, Journal of Social Policy, 27: 1, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crompton, R. and Lyonette, C. (2006), ‘Work–life “balance” in Europe’, Acta Sociologica, 49: 4, 379–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, H. (2004), ‘Popular discourse and the ethical deficiency of “Third Way” conceptions of citizenship’, Citizenship Studies, 8: 1, 65–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, H. (2007), ‘The ethics of welfare-to-work’, Policy and Politics, 34: 4, 573–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Departement Onderwijs en Vorming (2010), Wie is er niet als de schoolbel rinkelt? Evaluatie 2009–2010 [Who is Absent when the School Bell Rings?], Brussel: Vlaams Ministerie van onderwijs en vorming.Google Scholar
Donoghue, J. (2011), ‘Truancy and the prosecution of parents: an unfair burden on mothers?’, The Modern Law Review, 74: 2, 216–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dronkers, J. (2010), Quality and Inequality of Education, Dordrecht/London: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dwyer, P. (2004), ‘Creeping conditionality in the UK: from welfare rights to conditional entitlements’, Canadian Journal of Sociology, 29: 2, 265–87.Google Scholar
Eichhorst, W., Kaufmann, O. and Konle-Seidl, R. (2008), Bringing the Jobless into Work?: Experiences with Activation Schemes in Europe and the US, Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erikson, R. and Goldthorpe, J. H. (1992), The Constant Flux: A Study of Class Mobility in Industrial Societies, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990), The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (2008), ‘Childhood investments and skill formation’, International Tax and Public Finance, 15: 1, 19–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G., Gallie, D., Hemerijck, A. and Myles, J. (2002), Why We Need a New Welfare State, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finseraas, H. (2012), ‘Anti-immigration attitudes, support for redistribution and party choice in Europe’, in Kvist, J., Fritzell, J., Hvinden, B. and Kangas, O. (eds.), Changing Social Equality: The Nordic Welfare Model in the 21st Century, Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 23–44.Google Scholar
Gazier, B. (2009), ‘The European employment strategy in the tempest: restoring a longterm perspective’, in Morel, N., Palier, B. and Palme, J. (eds.), What Future for Social Investment?, Stockholm: Institute for Future Studies, pp. 153–63.Google Scholar
Ghysels, J. and Van Lancker, W. (2011), ‘The unequal benefits of activation: an analysis of the social distribution of family policy among families with young children’, Journal of European Social Policy, 21: 5, 472–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, A. (1998), The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Gilbert, N. (2002), The Transformation of the Welfare State: The Silent Surrender of Public Responsibility, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, N. and Van Voorhis, R. (2001), Activating the Unemployed: A Comparative Appraisal of Work-Oriented Policies, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Goodin, R. E. (1988), ‘Social welfare as a collective responsibility’, in Schmidtz, D. and Goodin, R. E. (eds.), Social Welfare and Individual Responsibility, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 116–44.Google Scholar
Goos, M., Manning, A. and Salomons, A. (2009), ‘Job polarization in Europe’, American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, 99: 2, 58–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grover, C. and Stewart, J. (1999), ‘“Market workfare”: social security, social regulation and competitiveness in the 1990s’, Journal of Social Policy, 28: 1, 73–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallfors, D., Vevea, J. L., Iritani, B., Cho, H., Khatapoush, S. and Saxe, L. (2002), ‘Truancy, grade point average, and sexual activity: a meta-analysis of risk indicators for youth substance use’, Journal of School Health, 72: 5, 205–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hemerijck, A. (2011a), ‘21st century welfare provision is more than the “social insurance state”: a reply to Paul Pierson’, ZeS-Arbeitspapier, 03/2011, http://hdl.handle.net/10419/52138 (consulted 21.3.12).Google Scholar
Hemerijck, A. (2011b), Changing Welfare States, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hibbett, A., Fogelman, K. and Manor, O. (1990), ‘Occupational outcomes of truancy’, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 60: 1, 23–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hooghe, M., Trappers, A., Meuleman, B. and Reeskens, T. (2008), ‘Migration to European countries. a structural explanation of patterns, 1980–2000’, International Migration Review, 42: 2, 476–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iversen, T. and Wren, A. (1998), ‘Equality, employment, and budgetary restraint: the trilemma of the service economy’, World Politics, 50: 4, 507–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenson, J. (2009), ‘Lost in translation: the social investment perspective and gender equality’, Social Politics, 16: 4, 446–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenson, J. and Saint-Martin, D. (2003), ‘New routes to social cohesion? Citizenship and the social investment state’, Canadian Journal of Sociology, 28: 1, 77–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kazepov, Y. (2010), Rescaling Social Policies: Towards Multilevel Governance in Europe, Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Kearney, C. A. (2008), ‘School absenteeism and school refusal behavior in youth: a contemporary review’, Clinical Psychology Review, 28: 3, 451–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kymlicka, W. and Banting, K. (2006), ‘Immigration, multiculturalism, and the welfare state’, Ethics and International Affairs, 20: 3, 281–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Grand, J. (1997), ‘Knights, knaves or pawns? Human behaviour and social policy’, Journal of Social Policy, 26: 2, 149–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lelkes, O. and Zólyomi, E. (2011), ‘Poverty and social exclusion of migrants in the European Union’, Policy Brief March 2011, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. (2001), ‘The decline of the male breadwinner model: implications for work and care’, Social Politics, 8: 2, 152–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, J. (2009), Work–Family Balance, Gender and Policy, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lister, R. (2003), ‘Investing in the citizen-workers of the future: transformations in citizenship and the state under New Labour’, Social Policy and Administration, 37: 5, 427–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahon, R. (2006), ‘The OECD and the work/family reconciliation agenda: competing frames’, in Lewis, J. (ed.), Children, Changing Families and Welfare States, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 173–97.Google Scholar
Mann, K. (2009), ‘Remembering and rethinking the social divisions of welfare: 50 years on’, Journal of Social Policy, 38: 1, 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, T. H. (1998), ‘Citizenship and social class’, in Shafir, G. (ed.), The Citizenship Debates: A Reader, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Mätzke, M. and Ostner, I. (2010), ‘Introduction: change and continuity in recent family policies’, Journal of European Social Policy, 20: 5, 387–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mau, S. and Burkhardt, C. (2009), ‘Migration and welfare state solidarity in Western Europe’, Journal of European Social Policy, 19: 3, 213–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D. (2008), ‘Immigrants, nations, and citizenship’, Journal of Political Philosophy, 16: 4, 371–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morel, N., Palier, B. and Palme, J. (eds.) (2012), Towards a Social Investment Welfare State?: Ideas, Policies and Challenges, Bristol: The Policy Press.Google Scholar
OECD (2006a), International Migration Outlook 2006, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2006b), Starting Strong II, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2007), Babies and Bosses: Reconciling Work and Family Life – A Synthesis of Findings for OECD Countries, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Oesch, D. and Menés, J. R. (2011), ‘Upgrading or polarization? Occupational change in Britain, Germany, Spain and Switzerland, 1990–2008’, Socio-Economic Review, 9: 3, 503–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orloff, A. S. (2006), ‘From maternalism to “employment for all”: state policies to promote women's employment across the affluent democracies’, in Levy, J. D. (ed.), The State after Statism: New State Activities in the Age of Liberalization, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 230–68.Google Scholar
Palier, B. (ed.) (2010), A Long Goodby to Bismarck? The Politics of Welfare Reforms in Continental Europe, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Phalet, K., Deboosere, P. and Bastiaenssen, V. (2007), ‘Old and new inequalities in educational attainment: ethnic minorities in the Belgian Census 1991–2001’, Ethnicities, 7: 3, 390–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierson, P. (2001), ‘Post-industrial pressures on the mature welfare states’, in Pierson, P. (ed.), The New Politics of the Welfare State, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 80–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierson, P. (2011), ‘The welfare state over the very long run’, ZeS-Arbeitspapier No. 02/2011, http://hdl.handle.net/10419/46215 (consulted 21.3.12).Google Scholar
Pintelon, O., Cantillon, B., Van den Bosch, K. and Whelan, C. (forthcoming), ‘The social stratification of social risks: the relevance of class for social investment strategies’, Journal of European Social Policy.Google Scholar
Raes, K. (2003), Tegen beter weten in – Een ethische kijk op het recht [Against one's Better Judgement – Ethical Perspectives on Legal Practice], Gent: Academia Press.Google Scholar
Raes, K. (2007), Het moeilijke ontmoeten: Verhalen van alledaagse zedelijkheid [The Difficult Encounter. Stories of Everyday Morality], Brussel: VUB Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1971), A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosanvallon, P. (1995), La nouvelle question sociale: Repenser l'État-providence, Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Ross, L. (1977), ‘The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: distortions in the attribution process’, in Berkowitz, L. (ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, New York: Academic Press, pp. 173–220.Google Scholar
Scharpf, F. and Schmidt, V. (2001), Welfare and Work in the Open Economy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Serrano-Pascual, A. (2004), ‘Conclusion: towards convergence of European activation policies?’, in Serrano-Pascual, A. (ed.), Are Activation Policies Converging in Europe? The European Employment Strategy for Young people, Brussels: ETUI.Google Scholar
Strawson, P. (1962), ‘Freedom and resentment’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 48, 1–25.Google Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. (2004), New Risks, New Welfare: The Transformation of the European Welfare State, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. (2005), ‘Is the future American? Or, can left politics preserve European welfare states from erosion through growing “racial” diversity?’, Journal of Social Policy, 34: 4, 661–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. (2011), ‘Opportunity and solidarity’, Journal of Social Policy, 40: 3, 453–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Titmuss, R. (1968), Committment to Welfare, London: George Allan & Unwin.Google Scholar
van Aerden, K. and Cantillon, B. (2010), ‘De sociale gelaagdheid van schoolse achterstand in GOK en niet-GOK scholen [The social stratification of delayed school careers in GOK and non-GOK schools]’, Tijdschrift voor Onderwijsrecht en Onderwijsbeleid, 6: 559–66.Google Scholar
Van der Veen, R. (2009), ‘The transformation of the welfare state: what is left of public responsibility’, in Schinkel, W. (ed.), Globalization and the State, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 173–95.Google Scholar
Van Lancker, W. and Ghysels, J. (2012), ‘Who benefits? The social distribution of subsidized childcare in Sweden and Flanders’, Acta Sociologica, 55: 2, 125–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Mechelen, N., Marchal, S., Goedemé, T., Marx, I. and Cantillon, B. (2011), ‘The CSB-minimum income protection indicators dataset (CSB-MIPI)’, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp, Antwerp.Google Scholar
Van Mechelen, N., Marx, I., Marchal, S., Goedemé, T. and Cantillon, B. (2010), The Evolution of Social Assistance and Minimum Wages in 25 European Countries, 2001–2009, Antwerp: Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy.Google Scholar
van Oorschot, W. (2000), ‘Who should get what, and why? On deservingness criteria and the conditionality of solidarity among the public’, Policy and Politics, 28: 1, 33–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Oorschot, W. (2008), ‘Solidarity towards immigrants in European welfare states’, International Journal of Social Welfare, 17: 1, 3–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Parijs, P. (1995), Real Freedom for All: What (if anything) Can Justify Capitalism?, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Van Steenberge, G. (2011), ‘Gedachtewisseling over het spijbelactieplan en de problematiek van schoolverzuim en spijbelen [Parliamentary debate on the spijbelactieplan and the problem of school absenteism and truancy]’, Verslag namens de commissie voor Onderwijs en Gelijke Kansen uitgebracht door mevrouw Gerda Van Steenberge, Commissie voor Onderwijs en Gelijke Kansen, Vlaams Parlement, Brussels.Google Scholar
Vandenbroucke, F. and Vleminckx, K. (2011), ‘Disappointing poverty trends: is the social investment state to blame? An exercise in soulsearching for policy-makers’, Journal of European Social Policy, 21: 5, 450–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vincent-Jones, P. (2009), ‘Individual responsibility and welfare contractualism: a relational evaluation’, The Social Contract Revisited, Oxford: The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society.Google Scholar
Weishaupt, J. T. (2011), From the Manpower Revolution to the Activation Paradigm Explaining Institutional Continuity and Change in an Integrating Europe, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Wölfl, A. (2005), ‘The service economy in OECD countries’, in OECD, (ed.), Enhancing the Performance of the Services Sector, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Zhang, M. (2007), ‘School absenteeism and the implementation of truancy-related penalty notices’, Pastoral Care in Education, 25: 25–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, D., Katsiyannis, A., Barrett, D. and Wilson, V. (2007), ‘Truancy offenders in the juvenile justice system’, Remedial and Special Education, 28: 4, 244–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar