Active social policies in the EU

The general objective of this book is to contribute to the debate on, as well as to the development and implementation of, EU social policies and social policies in EU countries, particularly the growing emphasis in these policies on "activation" and "participation" rather than income provision. This work makes this contribution by: reporting on international comparative research the contributors have been doing; reflecting on and critically assessing current activating social policies as well as evaluating their intended and unintended consequences and the presumptions they are based on; and offering recommendations with respect to the future design of activating social policies. The book's main themes are: the concepts of "social exclusion" and "social inclusion" and their conceptualisation in both social scientific and political discourse; the concept of work, the increasing heterogeneity of work in modern societies and the implications this has or should have for scientific and sociopolitical thinking about inclusion, participation and activation; the "paradigm shift" that can be observed in present social policies, which increasingly become directed at participation rather than (income) protection; reports on empirical research by the authors - in the context of an internationally comparative research project - into the inclusionary and exclusionary potentials of various types of work, including regular work, subsidised work programmes aiming at the unemployed, unpaid/informal work and training/education schemes; and the implications of these research findings for the issues outlined above, that is our thinking of work in relation to participation on the one hand, and social policies aiming at increasing participation on the other.