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The Workfare Illusion: Re-examining the Concept and the British Case
[journal article]
Abstract This article contends that workfare programmes pursued by various OECD countries since the
mid-1990s do not amount to a fundamental change in policy. The limited potential of workfare
is due to the fact that it fails to transcend the constraints of earlier forms of ‘active’ responses to unemployme... view more
This article contends that workfare programmes pursued by various OECD countries since the
mid-1990s do not amount to a fundamental change in policy. The limited potential of workfare
is due to the fact that it fails to transcend the constraints of earlier forms of ‘active’ responses to unemployment. Furthermore, it suffers from specific policy-making disadvantages not shared by these responses. The article opens with a survey of relevant academic debates on the subject. It then places workfare in a broader context by identifying its functional reach, as compared to other active policy responses to unemployment such as active labour market policy (ALMP). The third section analyses workfare policies in the United Kingdom, as developed since 1997, by reexamining the British New Deal employment programme. That review demonstrates that workfare policies either depend on their ‘fit’ with the existing policy-making heritage, or that they remain merely symbolic. The article concludes by suggesting that the potential of workfare to effect change in responses to unemployment continues to be of limited significance. In other words, capitalist employment and welfare systems continue to be characterized by incremental adaptation rather than by fundamental regime change as suggested by the critics of workfare.... view less
Keywords
Great Britain; activating labor market policy; workfare; unemployment; employment policy; employment promotion; social policy
Classification
Labor Market Policy
Free Keywords
active labour market policy; New Deal; welfare reform
Document language
English
Publication Year
2008
Page/Pages
p. 19-42
Journal
Social Policy & Administration, 42 (2008) 1
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9515.2007.00590.x
ISSN
0144-5596
Status
Published Version; reviewed
Licence
Free Digital Peer Publishing Licence
With the permission of the rights owner, this publication is under open access due to a (DFG-/German Research Foundation-funded) national or Alliance license.