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Sending an Active Message

Haking, Erik LU (2017) WPMM40 20171
Department of Political Science
Abstract
This thesis analyses how social policy in the form of benefit sanctions targeted at the long-term unemployed is made by case workers within the Swedish Public Employment Agency (Arbetsförmedlingen).
Since the 1990s, rising unemployment and fiscal pressures on the welfare states made countries more oriented towards policies of “activation”. In 2007, the Job and Development Programme (JOB), was initiated as the Labour Market Programme specially designed to activate the long-term unemployed in Sweden. In March 2015, a system for benefit sanctions was introduced within Activity Support, the form of economic compensation participants in a Labour Market Programme are entitled to.
This thesis adopts a theoretical framework of street-level... (More)
This thesis analyses how social policy in the form of benefit sanctions targeted at the long-term unemployed is made by case workers within the Swedish Public Employment Agency (Arbetsförmedlingen).
Since the 1990s, rising unemployment and fiscal pressures on the welfare states made countries more oriented towards policies of “activation”. In 2007, the Job and Development Programme (JOB), was initiated as the Labour Market Programme specially designed to activate the long-term unemployed in Sweden. In March 2015, a system for benefit sanctions was introduced within Activity Support, the form of economic compensation participants in a Labour Market Programme are entitled to.
This thesis adopts a theoretical framework of street-level bureaucracy, in which the case workers’ practice of discretion in their professional interaction with clients, becomes the actual policies. The analysis was conducted through semi-structured interviews with case workers within JOB in local offices in Skåne, Sweden during the spring of 2017.
The results from this analysis provide examples of how case workers practice discretion in order to handle issues regarding how they perceive, for example, resource constraints and clients’ various degrees of deservingness. Discretion took forms of, for example, creaming, client differentiation and protection of those clients considered to be deserving. (Less)
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author
Haking, Erik LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
A Street-Level Bureaucracy Approach towards Benefit Sanctions Targeted at the Long-Term Unemployed
course
WPMM40 20171
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Benefit Sanctions, Street-Level Bureaucracy, Discretion, Unemployment, Activity Support
language
English
id
8907544
date added to LUP
2017-06-27 14:55:57
date last changed
2017-06-27 14:55:57
@misc{8907544,
  abstract     = {{This thesis analyses how social policy in the form of benefit sanctions targeted at the long-term unemployed is made by case workers within the Swedish Public Employment Agency (Arbetsförmedlingen).
Since the 1990s, rising unemployment and fiscal pressures on the welfare states made countries more oriented towards policies of “activation”. In 2007, the Job and Development Programme (JOB), was initiated as the Labour Market Programme specially designed to activate the long-term unemployed in Sweden. In March 2015, a system for benefit sanctions was introduced within Activity Support, the form of economic compensation participants in a Labour Market Programme are entitled to.
This thesis adopts a theoretical framework of street-level bureaucracy, in which the case workers’ practice of discretion in their professional interaction with clients, becomes the actual policies. The analysis was conducted through semi-structured interviews with case workers within JOB in local offices in Skåne, Sweden during the spring of 2017.
The results from this analysis provide examples of how case workers practice discretion in order to handle issues regarding how they perceive, for example, resource constraints and clients’ various degrees of deservingness. Discretion took forms of, for example, creaming, client differentiation and protection of those clients considered to be deserving.}},
  author       = {{Haking, Erik}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Sending an Active Message}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}