Active welfare states have a mission: Making citizens self-sufficient via paid employment. In practice, this encompasses both enabling instruments such as training and intensive counselling, and demanding instruments such as job-search monitoring and sanctions. This study takes an inside look at three active welfare states: The Netherlands, Denmark and Great Britain. Based on extensive interview material, the book gives a detailed overview of how jobcentre caseworkers treat unemployed clients, co-build jobcentre organizations, and discursively justify their activation strategies. By showing how the practice of activation is systematically shaped by the wider policy environment, this book offers valuable insights for both researchers and practitioners dealing with active labour market policies.


Deborah Rice (1980) is a researcher and academic project manager at the University of Oldenburg. Previously, she was a doctoral researcher at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of VU University Amsterdam, affiliated with the research project "Governance of Activation" funded by Stichting Instituut Gak.

VU University Press
ISBN 978 90 8659 695 9