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Activation, Public Employment Services and their Clients: The Role of Social Class in a Continental Welfare State
Author(s) -
LudwigMayerhofer Wolfgang,
Behrend Olaf,
Sondermann Ariadne
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
social policy and administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9515
pISSN - 0144-5596
DOI - 10.1111/spol.12046
Subject(s) - unemployment , compensation (psychology) , social welfare , business , welfare state , class (philosophy) , service (business) , labour economics , state (computer science) , social work , welfare , public relations , political science , economics , economic growth , psychology , social psychology , market economy , marketing , politics , law , algorithm , artificial intelligence , computer science
Abstract This article fills a gap in the existing literature by investigating how public employment service ( PES ) staff actually deal with their clients under a continental regime of activation. The results reported here are based on interviews both with PES staff and their unemployed clients in G ermany. We argue that due to its B ismarckian origins as an insurance‐based system of ‘unemployment protection’, G ermany's system of unemployment compensation is attractive not only for the marginalized, but also for core workers. As a result, PES staff deal with clients from very heterogeneous class backgrounds. We demonstrate that social class is a significant factor in client outcomes, and that earlier research has perhaps overemphasized the role of frontline staff as ‘street‐level bureaucrats’. While staff do have considerable power, the result of the encounters between the administration and clients also depends on the capabilities of the clients, which, in turn, are strongly related to social class.