Active labour policies revisited by social workers

Social policies described as active have frequently been analyzed in the scientific literature on the basis of formal legal provisions. Using the notion, set forth by Lipsky (1980) as well as by several subsequent authors,... [ view full abstract ]

Social policies described as active have frequently been analyzed in the scientific literature on the basis of formal legal provisions. Using the notion, set forth by Lipsky (1980) as well as by several subsequent authors, that social workers who implement policies actually play a role in (re)defining them, the presentation intends to explore the way in which active social policies are implemented in a Swiss canton (Vaud).
On the basis of the study of the implementation of active social policies by social workers, we will show that on the one hand they tend to view activation as a distant goal – which means they often do no put it into practice right away (and sometimes not at all); on the other hand they impart a specific content to the concept of activation that differs from the way in which legislators conceived of it. Moreover, our analysis shows that the norm of activation is not applied in the same way to ‘young adults’ or to ‘poor families’.
The analysis enables us to better understand the nature of active social policies and to appreciate the far more complex and nuanced character of these policies in a way that cannot come to light in studies solely based on the examination of legal provisions. It shows the central role of social work research for understanding the actual impact of social policies.
The empirical material upon which our analysis is founded is made up, on the one hand, of laws, statements and parliamentary interventions defining social interventions and benefits, and on the other hand of data collected through 56 semi-structured interviews. The research was conducted within the framework of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) LIVES – Overcoming vulnerability: life course perspectives, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) http://www.lives-nccr.ch/en