17. Participation and accountability in social and employment policies
Conveners: Lavinia Bifulco, Vando Borghi
Handler Joel (University of California – UCLA, USA)
Welfare, Workfare, and Citizenship in the Developed World
Bonvin Jean-Michel and Rosenstein Emilie (University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, CH)
Accountability procedures and their impact on participation and empowerment at local level. Comparing four activation programmes in Switzerland
Benish Avishai (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, IL)
Accountability in Privatized Welfare Administrations: Expanding Public Norms to Private Welfare-to-Work Agencies in a Comparative Perspective
Monteleone Raffaele (University of Milan-Bicocca, IT), Mozzana Carlotta (Univesity of Milan, IT )
Capabilities for What? Organizational Logics of an Italian Instrument for Job Insertion of Disabled People between Constraints and Opportunities
Distributed papers
Ferrari Mauro (University of Padova, IT)
“Very Important Policies”. Valuation, Integration, Participation. Regional frames and experiences from the field
During the recent years, in many European countries two aspects of governance have acquired a particular importance for social and employment policies. The first is the spread of participation practices in different sectors (activation measures, interventions against unemployment, social services, health care, etc.). Although these practices are different as for the actors involved, the degree of formalisation, openness and inclusiveness, and the relationship with the political sphere, the public discourse generally tends to emphasize their positive effects, particularly with regard to citizens empowerment. The second aspect concerns the development of procedures for accountability depending on the application of New Public Management to the public sector. These procedures, which are articulated in quite diversified techniques, stress the responsibility that the public and private actors involved in governance have towards beneficiaries, citizens, communities.
As for the theoretical and analytical framework, on the one hand is now well known that participation is both an ambiguous concept and a heterogeneous phenomenon. On the other hand, different approaches are attempting to understand the way policy techniques and procedures incorporate ideas, values and categorizations, thereby affecting policies outcomes themselves.
The main aim of the stream is to highlight the ways in which logics and practices of participation influence accountability practices and techniques, and vice versa.
We particularly look for papers addressing:
- the regulatory, cognitive and normative aspects of the accountability instruments in the field of social and employment policies (such as assessment procedures);
- the effects of any standard of quality certification; the role of beneficiaries, citizens and communities in the construction and use of these instruments;
- the implications for different types of participation and empowerment.
Papers that focus on these issues either from a conceptual or an empirical perspective (or both) or from different disciplinary backgrounds and with a comparative view are particularly encouraged.
Lavinia Bifulco
Department of Sociology and Social Research
University of Milano-Bicocca
20136 Milano – Italy
Tel. +39 02 64487548.
lavinia.bifulco@unimib.it |
Vando Borghi
Department of Sociology
University of Bologna
40125 Bologna – Italy
Tel. +39 051 2092866.
vando.borghi@unibo.it |
|
