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Over the past two decades, activation has become a rather fashionable European trend for policies in the area of welfare and work, facilitating the job inclusion especially of the long‐term unemployed and other disadvantaged groups. The activation paradigm implies important challenges for related policy fields and the organisational provision of individualised, client‐centred training, skills development and counselling services. The main aim of this Supplement is to shed new light on the ways through which activation strategies have been translated in policies and new governance arrangements. More specifically, the five articles in this Supplement deal with two essential challenges of current activation policies: (i) the tightrope walk between cost‐effectiveness and comprehensive support; and (ii) the different facets and combinations of systemic coordination, collaboration, marketisation, decentralisation and individualisation.

Over the past decade, we have seen the development of a range of active labour market and social policies. In this article, we present an analytical framework (Activation‐FriendlyIntegration,AFI) in order to analyse these policies through the lens of their integration.AFIprovides a synthetic analysis of the nature and intensity of the changes brought about by developments in the fields of employment and social cohesion policies. The core components ofAFIare territorialisation, cross‐sectoriality, conditionality/individualisation and contractualisation/marketisation. These key concepts are discussed on the basis of six national governance schemes implemented over the last decade, with regard to the levels, dimensions and actors involved. This comparison ofFrench,British,Swedish,German,Italian andPolish activation policies points at a problematic misfit when the public is targeted for activation policies and there is a stronger use of tools for profiling and filtering beneficiaries, a greater reliance on contracting processes and a paradigmatic shift in the conception of welfare states' aims, tools and organisations.

AbstractActivation has received an enormous amount of attention over the past decade and a half. Despite the immense academic interest, activation policies remain difficult to compare. This is notably because these policies can be adapted multiple ways and are not confined to one policy area. Furthermore, common activation indicators such as expenditures can be misleading as not all activation instruments affect spending levels. These limitations notwithstanding, states continue to create and adapt activation policies. With the objective of identifying and comparing second‐order change, the author proposes a typology of activation policies according to how they affect target population behavior through incentives. The typology first identifies the lever to the labor market, supply, or demand. Second, it determines whether the mechanism for labor market integration is financial or human capital. In so doing, it allows for a more detailed understanding of the policy instruments adopted. This can be used as a tool in qualitative analysis to identify a change in policy instruments within and between cases.

Abstract
Since the financial crisis, Ireland's welfare state has been reorientated around a regulatory, 'work-first' activation model. Claimants now face penalty rates for non-compliance with activation requirements that have been significantly extended since 2009. Alongside these formal policy reforms, the organisations delivering Public Employment Services, and the modes by which they are commissioned, have also been reconfigured through a series of New Public Management style governance reforms, including, most notably, the creation of a quasi-market for employment services (JobPath) in 2015. This article addresses the intersection between activation and quasi-marketisation, positioning the latter as a form of 'double activation' that reshapes not only how but also what policies are enacted at the street level. It unpacks their shared logics and mutual commitment to governing agents at a distance through a behavioural public policy orientation, and reflects on the extent to which marketisation is capable of producing lower-cost but more responsive employment services.

Community Activation for Integral Development- Front Cover -- Community Activation for Integral Development -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- Prologue: build community -- Introduction -- Integral design principles in brief: 4 Rs -- Collective CARE-ing: relational, renewal and realization paths -- Conclusion: where do we go from here? -- References -- PART I: Southern grounding of community: livelihood, healing, truth quest

Under the heading of flexicurity, Danish labour market activation policies are receiving international attention because of their perceived ability both to curb unemployment and to boost employment. Indeed, the objectives, target groups and design of activation policy have undergone a remarkable transformation over the past fifteen years. From the initial curbing of unemployment among the insured unemployed through standard activation offers, the aim today is also to increase labour supply among non-economic active groups using individually tailored programmes. Danish activation policies thus embrace not only active labour market policies but also social and integration policies. Despite widespread popularity and belief in the positive effects of activation, little is actually known about its overall impact on the Danish economy.

Frontline workers play a crucial role in implementing activation policies. Nevertheless, research on what competencies are required for activation work is limited. We explored activation competency based on a survey of 1,735 frontline workers in the Norwegian labour and welfare administration. Factor analysis revealed two distinct underlying dimensions in activation competency: market competency and user‐oriented competency. We found that the social workers in the study viewed themselves as having significantly less market competency and slightly more user‐oriented competency than non‐social workers have, but the differences were small. The results also indicate that these effects are partially mediated by attitudes towards conditionality. The results give reason to treat activation competencies as twofold and raise the question of whether social work education improves frontline workers' competency in activation work compared with frontline workers with other educational backgrounds.

This blog is based on an article in the Journal of Social Policy by Suzan Mbatudde Skjold and Kjetil Grimastad Lundberg. Click here to access the article. As a response to persistent unemployment and marginalisation of persons with complex support needs, welfare states have intensified their policy initiatives towards people who are considered not in… Continue reading Accountability in Personalised Supported Activation Services →

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to assess the emergence of New Public Management in the governance of activation policies in nine European countries. In the light of considerable diversity in the implementation of New Public Management in the different countries, the article tries to identify common patterns.Design/methodology/approachFor the identification of patterns, fuzzy set theory is applied. Fuzzy sets are used to define ideal types and to measure the degree of membership in the different ideal types for every country.FindingsIt is possible to show that despite the substantial diversity of New Public Management approaches in the governance of activation policies, common patterns exist. The article identifies four ideal types of New Public Management within the nine countries involved in the analysis. At the same time it is shown that most countries do not represent pure models but unify different tendencies within one dominant type.Originality/valueThe identification of common patterns in the emergence of New Public Management in the governance of activation can provide a useful framework for discussion and further research on the implications of different forms of governance on the content and delivery of activation services in Europe.