Welfare to Work in Contemporary European Welfare States: Legal, Sociological and Philosophical Perspectives on Justice and Domin

Description

With more than a dozen contributors and case studies, this title considers the legal, sociological and philosophical perspectives from around the continent to build a rich picture of welfare to work policies and their impacts. We live in an age of extreme inequality, when a wealthy minority of the global population lives in historical luxury even as middle-class people fear for the future and twenty percent of the world struggles with chronic poverty. Social policy has failed to find answers to this crisis, and we are beginning to see powerful calls for a new way of thinking about how to escape it. This book argues that we need to start by reframing the whole question, starting not with poverty as a problem to be solved, but with our vision of a good society as a goal to be achieved. That frees us up to consider bold, forward-looking social policies that can have a far-reaching impact. The proposals here are based on a research program carried out by the Webb Memorial Trust that included population surveys of more than twelve thousand people. The way forward, we see, is to increase people's sense of agency in building the society they want.

Anja Eleveld is a labour lawyer, political scientist and Assistant Professor at the VU University Amsterdam. Her research focuses on the regulation and implementation of conditional welfare. Thomas Kampen is a sociologist and Assistant Professor at the University of Humanistic Studies. His research focuses on the lived experiences of welfare state reforms in the Netherlands. Josien Arts received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Amsterdam. She examined local practices of welfare-to-work policy in the Netherlands in the context of post-Fordist labour markets.

"This interdisciplinary book... not only advances our understanding of power asymmetries and injustice in WTW policies in Europe but also asks a crucial question: What knowledge, tools, and institutions are needed to challenge domination in modern workfare states?" Social Policy & Administration "... a thoroughly convincing and grounded argument for criticizing contemporary welfare to work ideologies and practices... develops a range of standards and options which are open to policy makers. The recommendations are down to the ground and can be implemented straight away." Journal of Social Security Law "This book provides a very important analysis and a very insightful critique of Welfare to Work programmes in Europe and social security researchers should be indebted to Anja Eleveld and her colleagues for bringing it to fruition." European Journal of Social Security