Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-dfsvx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T15:58:09.242Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Working Less, Not More in a Workfare Programme: Group Solidarity, Informal Norms and Alternative Value Systems Amongst Activated Participants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2021

LASSE SCHMIDT HANSEN  and
MATHIAS HERUP NIELSEN Open the ORCID record for MATHIAS HERUP NIELSEN [Opens in a new window]
LASSE SCHMIDT HANSEN
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Bartholins Allé 7, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark, email: lsh@ps.au.dk
MATHIAS HERUP NIELSEN
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and Society, Aalborg University, Frederikskaj 10B, 2450 Copenhagen SV, Denmark, email: mhn@dps.aau.dk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article uses extensive ethnographic methods to explore the lived reality of a Danish workfare programme. The programme requires social assistance recipients to perform manual labour for their benefits at municipal work sites. The contrast between the political rhetoric that justifies the workfare programme and the lived reality of it is striking. While the programme is justified as a means to put the passive unemployed to work, there is a norm of working less, not more at the site. The participants spend most of their time waiting or conducting seemingly meaningless work assignments. However, over time, the majority of the participants begin to embrace this modus operandi at the site. This article answers this apparent paradox by turning to concepts from the anthropology of industrial work. Such concepts allow us to analyse how camaraderie exists amongst participants as well as work supervisors at the site. Particularly, the camaraderie is based on group solidarity, an informal regulation of work efficiency and an alternative system of value. Hereby, the article adds to previous findings on the ‘lived experiences’ of welfare recipients.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , January 2023 , pp. 46 - 62
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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

Breidahl, K. N. and Larsen, F. (2015), “Udfordringer Og Dilemmaer i Det Offentlige-Private Samspil På Beskæftigelsesområdet: Markedsgørelse i Flere Versioner.” Politica 47 (4): 503–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brodkin, E. Z. (2011), “Policy Work: Street-Level Organizations Under New Managerialism.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 21 (suppl_2): i253–77. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muq093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burawoy, M. (1979a), Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism. London: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Burawoy, M. (1979b), “The Anthropology of Industrial Work.” Annual Review of Anthropology 8: 231–66. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2155620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caswell, D. and Larsen, F. (2017), “Frontline Work in the Delivery of Danish Activation Policies: And How Governance, Organizational and Occupational Contexts Shape This.” In Frontline Delivery of Welfare-to-Work Policies in Europe: Activating the Unemployed, edited by van Berkel, Rik et al., 163–80. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chase, E. and Walker, R. (2012), “The Co-Construction of Shame in the Context of Poverty: Beyond a Threat to the Social Bond.” Sociology 47 (4): 739–54. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038512453796.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DAMVAD (2015), “Kvalitativ Evaluering Af Nytte-Indsats. Udarbejdet Af DAMVAD for Styrelsen for Arbejdsmarked Og Rekruttering.” https://star.dk/media/1225/evaluering-af-nytteindsats.pdf.Google Scholar
Danish Agency for Labor Market and Recruitment (2015), “Kvantitativ Evaluering Af Nytteindsatsen 2014.” Viden og Analyse J.nr. 2015. København: https://www.ft.dk/samling/20161/almdel/beu/spm/43/svar/1353383/1680099.pdf.Google Scholar
Danneris, S. and Nielsen, M. H. (2018), “Bringing the Client Back in: A Comparison between Political Rationality and the Experiences of the Unemployed.” Social Policy & Administration 52 (7): 1441–54. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, H. and Taylor-Gooby, P. (2014), Dependency Culture. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, A. (2013), “Activation Workers’ Perceptions of Their Long-Term Unemployed Clients’ Attitudes towards Employment.” Journal of Social Policy 42 (4): 799–817. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279413000317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dwyer, P. (2004), Understanding Social Citizenship Themes and Perspectives for Policy and Practice. Second Edition. Bristol University Press.Google Scholar
Edin, K. and Lein, L. (1997), Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Wo. Russel Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Eleveld, A. and Kampen, T. (2020), Welfare to Work in Contemporary European Welfare States: Legal, Sociological and Philosophical Perspectives on Justice and Domination. Policy Press.Google Scholar
Girardi, S., et al. (2019), “Activated and Included? The Social Inclusion of Social Assistance Beneficiaries Engaged in ‘Public Works.’” International Journal of Socology and Social Work 39 (9/10): 738–51.Google Scholar
Graeber, D. (2018), Bullshit Jobs. A Theory. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018. 333 p.Google Scholar
Handler, J. F. (2004), Social Citizenship and Workfare in the United States and Western Europe. The Paradox of Inclusion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodson, R. (1995), “Worker Resistance: An Underdeveloped Concept in the Sociology of Work.” Economic and Industrial Democracy 16 (1): 79–110. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X9501600104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodson, R. (1997), “Group Relations at Work: Solidarity, Conflict, and Relations With Management.” Work and Occupations 24 (4): 426–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888497024004003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lister, R. (2004), Poverty. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Lister, R. (2015), “‘To Count for Nothing’: Poverty beyond the Statistics.” Journal of the British Academy, no. 3: 139–65.Google Scholar
Lødemel, I., and Trickey, H. (eds.) (2001), An Offer You Can’t Refuse. Workfare in an International Perspective. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Mcintosh, I. and Wright, S. (2019), “Exploring What the Notion of ‘Lived Experience’ Offers for Social Policy Analysis.” Journal of Social Policy 48 (3): 449–67. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279418000570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead, L. M. (1986), Beyond Entitlement. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Mead, L. M. (1992), The New Politics of Poverty: The Nonworking Poor in America. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Mik-Meyer, N. (1999), Kærlighed Og Opdragelse i Socialaktiveringen. København: Gyldendal.Google Scholar
Ministry of Employment (2013), “Alle Kan Gøre Nytte - Udspil Til En Kontanthjælpsreform.” https://www.regeringen.dk/media/1283/alle_kan_goere_nytte__udspil_til_en_kontanthjaelpsreform_.pdf Google Scholar
Nielsen, M. H. (2014), “Nytteaktiveringens Retfærdiggørelse. Et Pragmatisk Sociologisk Blik På Aktivering Af Arbejdsløse.” Dansk Sociologi 25 (1): 9–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, M. H. (2017), “Four Normative Languages of Welfare: A Pragmatic Sociological Investigation.” Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, December, 1–21.Google Scholar
Nielsen, M. H. (2019), Optimismens Politik. Skabelsen af uværdigt trængende. Frederiksberg: Frydenlund Google Scholar
Patrick, R. (2014), “Working on Welfare: Findings from a Qualitative Longitudinal Study Into the Lived Experiences of Welfare Reform in the UK.” Journal of Social Policy 43 (4): 705–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279414000294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patrick, R. (2016), “Living with and Responding to the ‘scrounger’ narrative in the UK: Exploring Everyday Strategies of Acceptance, Resistance and Deflection.” Journal of Poverty and Social Justice 24 (3): 245–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patrick, R. (2017), For Whose Benefit? The Everyday Realities of Welfare Reform. Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Patrick, R. (2020), “Unsettling the Anti-Welfare Commonsense: The Potential in Participatory Research with People Living in Poverty.” Journal of Social Policy 49 (2): 251–70. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279419000199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peck, J. (2001), Workfare States. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Pultz, S. (2018), “Shame and Passion: The Affective Governing of Young Unemployed People.” Theory & Psychology 28 (3): 358–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354318759608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quaid, M. (2002), Workfare: Why Good Social Policy Ideas Go Bad. University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossetti, F., Roosma, F., Laenen, T. and Abts, K. (2020), “An Unconditional Basic Income? How Dutch Citizens Justify Their Opinions about a Basic Income and Work Conditionality.” Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy 36 (3): 284–300. https://doi.org/10.1017/ics.2020.15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shildrick, T. and MacDonald, R. (2013a), “Poverty Talk: How People Experiencing Poverty Deny Their Poverty and Why They Blame ‘The Poor.’” The Sociological Review 61 (2): 285–303. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shildrick, T. and MacDonald, R. (2013b), “Poverty Talk: How People Experiencing Poverty Deny Their Poverty and Why They Blame ‘The Poor.’” The Sociological Review 61 (2): 285–303. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shildrick, T., MacDonald, R. Webster, C. and Garthwaite, K. (2012), Poverty and Insecurity: Life in “low-Pay, No-Pay” Britain. University of Bristol: The Policy Press.Google Scholar
Soss, J. (1999), “Welfare Application Encounters: Subordination, Satisfaction, and the Puzzle of Client Evaluations.” Administration & Society 31 (1): 50–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/009539999400935493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soss, J., Fording, R. C. and Schram, S. F. (2011), Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race. Chicago: Chicago University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torfing, J. (1999), “Workfare With Welfare: Recent Reforms of the Danish Welfare State.” Journal of European Social Policy 9 (1): 5–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/095892879900900101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tucker, J. (1993), “Everyday Forms of Employee Resistance.” Sociological Forum 8 (1): 25–45. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01112329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wacquant, L. (2015), “For a Sociology of Flesh and Blood.” Qualitative Sociology 38 (1): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-014-9291-y.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, S. (2016), “Conceptualising the Active Welfare Subject: Welfare Reform in Discourse, Policy and Lived Experience.” Policy & Politics 44 (2): 235–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar