300 likes | 453 Views
Employment Policies and the Struggle Against Workers’ Poverty: The Social Investment State in Liberal Welfare Regimes. Jane Jenson and Pascale Dufour. I - The Post-War Period : Employment Policy as a protection against social risk II - The Period of Retrenchment: Employability problematic
E N D
Employment Policies and the Struggle Against Workers’ Poverty: The Social Investment State in Liberal Welfare Regimes Jane Jenson and Pascale Dufour
I - The Post-War Period : Employment Policy as a protection against social risk II - The Period of Retrenchment: Employability problematic III - The Redesign of Welfare: The Social Investment State
The Post-War Period Representation of social problems: •stable image of working life •stable image family life low % of unemployment Mainly breadwinner model Unemployment : accidental and temporary
State Responses Unemployment Insurance UK : 1948: National Insurance Act Canada: 1940: first Unemployment insurance Training and Education policies Some specific elements for women in Canada Social Assistance system for those not able to work
The Retrenchment Period Risks are changing New target of public action: unemployed people and their employability
State response Reduction of unemployment insurance system
Still an individual and family problem • The Work-Family nexus •Consequences: development of new types of poverty
Redesign of Welfare : the Building of Social Investment State Risk Working Poor
New Work opportunities for highly qualified workers Source: Department of Trade and Industry. 1998. Building the Knowledge Driven Economy.
Source: The Canadian Workforce: Statistics on the Canadian Workforce from the 2001 Canada Census. Canada Online.
Bi-polarisation of work market Source: Statistics Canada. Income Trends in Canada 1980-2001.
Source: UK National Statistics. 2003. Income Inequality: Gap Widens Slightly from mid-1990s.
Framework of Social Investment State Two types of discourses: • Investing today will bring some benefits in the future • Investment today will lead to economy in the future Two types of actions: • Innovation and excellence policy • Prevention and fight against social exclusion
Specific measures Promotion of life-long learning
Fight against poverty and especially child povertyNational Child Benefit in Canada /Employment Tax Credit Source: OECD. Social Expenditure Database.
Making “work pay”Minimum wage in GB / bonus for social assistance recipients who work
Restrictions in social assistance provisions Source: OECD. Social Expenditure Database.
Popularity of Welfare to work programsStrategy of work first / active measures / short-term training
Work/Family Nexus • Conciliation between the two become a problem for everybody • Solutions and actions are strongly different, depending on the society considered.
Conclusion • In the field of employment policies, the Social Investment States are characterized by: • Polarization of discourses that target two different groups of workers (but the reference of the boarder is no more the market but the nature of work) • Actions only for the most in needs (social assistance became, in fact, the main tool of employment policies) • Universality of thinking (and actions?) around the work-family conciliation problematic