Policy contexts across advanced economies have reconfigured welfare systems to consolidate paid work as the cornerstone of citizenship obligations. Yet unfulfilled or undesired employment situations – whether unemployment, underemployment, precarious employment, unhealthy (mentally or physically) employment or stalled employment – are pervasive features of capitalist economies.

In response, national governments cite a new need to reform welfare systems in order to create an ‘activating’ environment to drive maximum labour market participation. This is narrated in part as necessary in today's interconnected economy due to the disciplinary logic of global economic forces and in part as benevolent governance based on a paternalistic desire to enhance citizen well-being through supporting participation in paid work. There is some truth to both claims, but only in part. Whilst globalisation indeed brings new economic pressures on nation states it does not remove governments’ capacity to act, though does offer them a conveniently self-constraining narrative to pursue already desired reforms. And whilst good work is on average known to be beneficial for health (Waddell and Burton, 2006), all work is not ‘good’ – indeed, a growing amount of the labour market is becoming ‘bad’ zero-hours and casualised employment – and nor are all individuals able to realise their employment aspirations.

Irrespective, ‘activating’ employment support and the underlying normalisation in policy that all adults should be in paid employment wherever possible have become central features of welfare states across advanced economies. However, the nature and balance of the elements that define the nature of the employment ‘support’ on offer vary across national regimes (Levy, 2004; Lindsay et al., 2007; Bonoli, 2010) – ‘support’ might in differing contexts read as voluntary help, mandatory coercion or financial incentivisation and reward. The devil, as ever, is in the detail. Particular attention has been paid by policy makers during this period to certain ‘priority’ groups – lone parents, individuals with health conditions and disabilities, the long-term unemployed and either end of the working age spectrum (young adults seeking to solidify their place in the labour market and older workers often struggling due to sectoral change or new skills demands).