Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T08:31:07.894Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Review Article: The Governance of Activation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

Rik van Berkel  and
Vando Borghi
Rik van Berkel
Affiliation:
Utrecht University, Utrecht School of Governance, Bijlhouwerstraat 6, 3511ZC Utrecht, The Netherlands E-mail: [email protected]
Vando Borghi
Affiliation:
Bologna University, Faculty of Political Science, Strada Maggiore 45, 40125 Bologna, Italy E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article presents a review of relevant literature on the issue of the governance of activation. The article starts with some general comments on the state of the art of research on the governance of activation. Putting governance into practice in new service provision models in the policy areas of activation and social policy, the review continues with a discussion of publications on some of the characteristics of these models: marketisation, decentralisation, inter-agency cooperation and individualisation of service provision. It also looks at literature on the implementation of activation, as this provides insight into governance issues from an organisational and street-level perspective.

Type
Themed Section on The Governance of Activation
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , July 2008 , pp. 393 - 402
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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

Bifulco, L., Bricocoli, M. and Monteleone, R. forthcoming, ‘Activation and local welfare in Italy: trends, issues and a case study’, Social Policy and Administration, 42, 2.Google Scholar
Bonvin, J.M. and Farvaque, N. (2007), ‘A capability approach to individualised and tailor-made activation’, in van Berkel, R. and Valkenburg, B. (eds), Making It Personal: Individualising Activation Services in the EU, Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 45–67.Google Scholar
Bonvin, J.M. and Moachon, E. (2007), ‘The impact of contractualism in social policies: the case of active labour market policies in Switzerland’, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 27, 9/10, 401–13.Google Scholar
Borghi, V. and Van Berkel, R. (2007), ‘New modes of governance in Italy and the Netherlands: the case of activation policies’, Public Administration, 85, 1, 83–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bredgaard, T. and Larsen, F. (eds) (2005), Employment Policy from Different Angles, Copenhagen: DJOeF.Google Scholar
Bredgaard, T. and Larsen, F. (2007), ‘Implementing public employment policy: what happens when non-public agencies take over?’, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 27, 7/8, 287–301.Google Scholar
Brodkin, E. (2007), ‘Bureaucracy redux: management reformism and the welfare state’, Journal of Public Administration Theory and Practice, 17, 1, 1–17.Google Scholar
Bruttel, O. (2005), ‘New private delivery arrangements in Germany: an initial evaluation using new institutional economics’, in Sol, E. and Westerveld, M.. (eds), Contractualism and Employment Services – A New Form of Welfare State Governance, The Hague: Kluwer Law International, pp. 209–31.Google Scholar
Bryna Sanger, M. (2001), The Welfare Market Place: Privatization and Welfare Reform, Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Carmel, E., Hamblin, K. and Papadopoulos, T. (2007), ‘Governing the activation of older workers in the European Union: the construction of the “activated retiree”’, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 27, 9/10, 387–401.Google Scholar
Cho, C., Kelleher, C., Wright, D. and Webb Yackee, S. (2005), ‘Translating national policy objectives into local achievements across planes of governance and among multiple actors: second-order devolution and welfare reform implementation’, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 15, 1, 31–54.Google Scholar
Christensen, T., Fimreite, A. and Laegreid, P. (2007), Reform of the employment and welfare administrations – the challenges of coordinating diverse public organizations’, International Review of Administrative Sciences, 73, 3, 389–408.Google Scholar
Clarke, J. (2004), Changing Welfare, Changing States: New Directions in Social Policy, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Clarke, J. and Newman, J. (1997), The Managerial State: Power, Politics and Ideology in the Remaking of Social Welfare, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Considine, M. (2001), Enterprising States: The Public Management of Welfare-to-Work, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Crespo Suárez, E. and Serrano Pascual, A. (2007), ‘Political production of individualised subjects in the paradoxical discourse of the EU institutions’, in van Berkel, R. and Valkenburg, B.. (eds), Making it Personal: Individualising Activation Services in the EU, Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 107–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, M. (1995), ‘Governing the unemployed self in an active society’, Economy and Society, 24, 4, 559–83.Google Scholar
Dean, M. (1999), Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Denhardt, R.B. and Denhardt, J.V. (2000), ‘The new public service: serving rather than steering’, Public Administration Review, 60, 6, 549–59.Google Scholar
Finn, D. (2000), ‘Welfare to work: the local dimension’, Journal of European Social Policy, 10, 1, 43–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finn, D., Knuth, M., Schweer, O. and Somerville, W. (2005), Reinventing the Public Employment Service: The Changing Role of Employment Assistance in Britain and Germany, London: Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society.Google Scholar
Freedland, M. and King, D. (2005), ‘Client contractualism between the Employment Service and jobseekers in the United Kingdom’, in Sol, E. and Westerveld, M.. (eds), Contractualism in Employment Services, The Hague: Kluwer, pp. 119–39.Google Scholar
Garcia, M. (2006), ‘Citizenship practices and urban governance in European cities’, Urban Studies, 43, 4, 745–65.Google Scholar
Giguère, S. and Higuchi, Y. (2005), Local Governance for Promoting Employment – Comparing the Performance of Japan and Seven Countries, Tokyo: Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training.Google Scholar
Handler, J. (2004), Social Citizenship and Workfare in the United States and Western Europe: The Paradox of Inclusion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Johansson, H. (2007), ‘Placing the individual “at the forefront”: Beck and individual approaches in activation’, in van Berkel, R. and Valkenburg, B.. (eds), Making It Personal: Individualising Activation Services in the EU, Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 67–87.Google Scholar
Karagiannaki, E. (2007), Exploring the effects of integrated benefit systems and active labour market policies: evidence from Jobcentre Plus in the UK, Journal of Social Policy, 36, 2, 177–95.Google Scholar
Kazepov, Y. forthcoming, ‘The subsidiarization of social policy: actors, processes and impacts: some reflections on the Italian case from a European perspective’, European Societies, 2.Google Scholar
Keskitalo, E. (2007), ‘Between universal policy and individualised practice: analysing activation policy in Finland’, in Van Berkel, R. and Valkenburg, B.. (eds), Making It Personal:. Individualising Activation Services in the EU, Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Kjaer, A.M. (2004), Governance, Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 149–69.Google Scholar
Larsen, F. and Mailand, M. (2007), ‘Danish activation policy: the role of the normative foundation, the institutional set-up and other drivers’, in Pascual, A. Serrano and Magnusson, L.. (eds), Reshaping Welfare States and Activation Regimes in Europe, Brussels: Peter Lang, pp. 99–127.Google Scholar
Newman, J. (2001), Modernising Governance: New Labour, Policy and Society, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Newman, J. (2007), ‘The “double dynamics” of activation: institutions, citizens and the remaking of welfare governance’, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 27, 9/10, 364–76.Google Scholar
Nørgaard, A. and Pallesen, T. (2003), ‘Governing structures and structured governing: local political control of public services in Denmark’, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 13, 4, 543–61.Google Scholar
OECD (2003), Managing Decentralisation: A New Role for Labour Market Policy, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Peck, J. (2001), Workfare States, New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Powell, M. (2007), Understanding the Mixed Economy of Welfare, Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Sandfort, J. (1999), ‘The structural impediments to human service collaboration: examining welfare reform at the front lines’, Social Service Review, 73, 3, 314–40.Google Scholar
Sen, A. (1999), Development as Freedom, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Serrano Pascual, A. and Crespo Suárez, E. (2007), ‘The government of activation policies by EU institutions’, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 27, 9/10, 376–87.Google Scholar
Sol, E. and Westerveld, M. (2005), Contractualism in Employment Services – a New Form of Welfare State Governance, The Hague: Kluwer Law International.Google Scholar
Struyven, L. and Steurs, G. (2005), ‘Design and redesign of a quasi-market for the reintegration of jobseekers: empirical evidence from Australia and the Netherlands’, Journal of European Social Policy, 15, 3, 211–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tendler, J. (1997), ‘Good government in the tropics’, Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Terpstra, J. (2002), ‘Cooperation between social security and employment services: Evaluation of a reform strategy in the Netherlands’, International Social Security Review, 55, 3, 39–55.Google Scholar
Van Berkel, R. (2006), ‘The decentralization of social assistance in the Netherlands’, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 26, 1/2, 20–32.Google Scholar
Van Berkel, R. and Valkenburg, B. (eds) (2007), Making it Personal: Individualising Activation Services in the EU, Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Van Berkel, R. and Van der Aa, P. (2005), ‘The marketization of activation services: a modern panacea? Some lessons from the Dutch experience’, Journal of European Social Policy, 15, 4, 329–49.Google Scholar
Wiggan, J. (2007), ‘Reforming the United Kingdom's public employment and social security agencies’, International Review of Administrative Sciences, 73, 3, 409–24.Google Scholar
Wright, S. (2006), ‘The administration of transformation: a case study of implementing welfare reform in the UK’, in Henman, P. and Fenger, M.. (eds), Administering Welfare Reform: International Transformations in Welfare Governance, Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 161–83.Google Scholar