6 research outputs found
The Capability Approach in social policy analysis. Yet another concept?
Part of the Working Papers on the Reconciliation of Work and Welfare in Europe series.There is still some lack of clarity regarding the question of what the Capability Approach actually is, how it should be interpreted and operationalised, and not least whether it is an adequate and useful concept for the analysis of social policy in Europe. Against the backdrop of these questions, this paper looks at recent contributions which use the Capability Approach (CA) for analysing social policy. This leads me to argue that the most interesting applications of the CA may not lie in policy evaluation in the classical sense, but rather in an analysis of policy outputs through the lens of concepts such as individualisation and diversity. In this sense, the CA may serve as normative foundation for addressing the dependent variable problem in comparative welfare regime research. In order to play this role, however, CA-applications will need to clearly differentiate between the potential and implications of the CA itself, and various external normative reference points which should not be identified with the CA
Comparative social policy analysis and active labour market policy:Putting quality before quantity
Towards greater personalisation of active labour market policy? Britain and Germany compared
This PhD study centres on analysing the changing employment service portfolios available
to disadvantaged people out of work in Britain and Germany. Looking at the recent wave of
comparative studies on ‘activation’ reforms, it springs to mind that the question of the
changing portfolio of ‘active’ labour market policy (ALMP) measures has received only little
attention in the sense of a rigorous comparative analysis. In order to address that gap, this
study develops a novel normative and analytical perspective for the study of ALMP, which
then is applied to the empirical cases Britain and Germany.
I first develop the concept of personalisation as the normative and analytical framework for
the analysis of ALMP. I show that the diversity of ALMP portfolios, which is a
precondition for a personalised service provision, can serve as a proxy for measuring
personalisation. Equipped with this analytical tool, the analysis subsequently focuses on the
changes to ALMP portfolios over the past 15 years in terms of diversity. It is shown that
during this period both Britain and Germany reformed working-age benefits in a way that
led to a closer integration of the benefit system at an institutional level. Taking the policy
rhetoric that closer integration will lead to more ‘personalised’ (UK) or more ‘tailor-made’
(Germany) services as a starting point, I analyse whether these developments at an
institutional level have indeed led to a more personalised, or more diverse, provision of
employment services. This study looks in particular at the situation of those groups in the
two countries who have been most affected by recent integration reforms. These have
primarily been claimants of second-tier working-age benefits, namely incapacity related
benefits in the UK, and ‘Sozialhilfe’ (SH, social assistance) and ‘Arbeitslosengeld II’
(ALGII, Unemployment Benefit II) in Germany.
I find that in both countries, employment services for claimants of these second-tier
benefits have become more diverse in the wake of the integration reforms of the past 10 to
15 years, thereby increasing their personalisation potential. However, the two countries have
each followed very specific reform trajectories. While the volume and coverage of ALMP
have increased in both countries, the portfolio of services for second-tier claimants today is
much more diverse in Germany than in Britain. This is primarily due to the existence of a
large volume of services directed at claimants more distant from the labour market that
follow a social integration & employability approach. These services are more marginal in
Britain, where measures that follow a work-first approach are dominant. This divergent
development is indicative of major and persistent differences in terms of ideational context
as well as institutional (operational) factors. New Public Management reforms have
influenced operational policy to different degrees in the two countries, effectively limiting
the diversity of employment services in Britain more than in Germany