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Announcement of Stream and Call for Abstracts (Abstract deadline: Monday 15th March)
8th Annual Conference of ESPAnet (The European Network for Social Policy Analysis)
September 2nd-4th 2010, Budapest, Hungary
Fit for work in Europe? Health, employability and challenges for activation in an era of crisis (Stream 11.2)
Convenors: Colin Lindsay, Employment Research Institute, Edinburgh Napier University;
Donald Houston,
School of Social and Environmental Sciences, University of Dundee
Welfare states across and beyond the EU face significant challenges related to the rise in the number of people of working age claiming ‘sickness’, ‘disability’ or ‘incapacity’ benefits. Policy responses combining health and
active labour market policies pre-date the current economic crisis and will retain their relevance long after the recovery – but the downturn in labour demand across most EU states currently poses an additional challenge to the effectiveness of policies in
this area.
The aims of this stream are: firstly, to bring together research on the links between health, labour markets, social exclusion, employability and rising benefit numbers; and secondly, to critically assess policy responses
in the UK, EU and beyond.
We particularly want to bring together researchers from the range of disciplines touching on these issues, including: social policy analysis; sociology of health; economic/human geography; and labour economics.
Key research questions to be addressed by papers may include:
- How do health problems and other barriers to work combine to limit opportunities for labour market participation among claimants of sickness/disability benefits?
- How does the geography of local/regional labour markets shape these individuals’ experiences of social and labour market exclusion?
- What impacts has the economic crisis had on people claiming sickness/disability benefits and on sick and disabled people more generally?
- How appropriate are the rationale, content and governance of activation/labour market policies that target those claiming sickness/disability benefits?
- What works in helping people claiming sickness/disability benefits to cope with health problems and/or make progress towards work?
- Is the activation of those claiming sickness/disability benefits a realistic policy goal in an era of high unemployment?
- What are the longer-term implications of population ageing for policies to help people cope with health problems at work?
We will seek opportunities to publish papers in a journal special edition. The stream convenors recently co-organised a multi-disciplinary seminar on sickness benefits reform in the UK, which resulted in a Special Issue of
Policy
Studies (forthcoming 2010).
Dr Colin Lindsay
Senior Research Fellow
Employment Research Institute
The Business School
Edinburgh Napier University
Craiglockhart 03/50
Edinburgh EH14 1DJ
t: 0131 455 4315
m: 077911 35060
f: 0131 455 4311
