Workshop on Integrated Employment and Activation Policies in a Multilevel Welfare System
Milan, August 30-31, 2012

Activating employment policies have become a new paradigm for welfare and work. Labour market policies have shifted towards the aim to activate broader parts of society by facilitating the access especially of women, younger and older people, migrants, young mothers and unskilled and disabled people to the labour market. While the activation paradigm has thus been established as principal concept in labour market and employment policies, its implications reach far beyond the labour market. The activation paradigm implies also important challenges for related policy fields (training and education, social security and assistance, family and life course policy, health policy, migration, integration and even housing policies). Especially in times of crisis, employment-friendly reforms thus raise issues how welfare states integrate and (re-)align the different policy fields according to a coherent logic of activation.
Taking up the issue of integrated employment and activation policies, this call invites contributions on the following questions: How are coordination demands of integrated policies handled in welfare states? What different forms of activation policies are pursued in different countries and how far have different strategies shaped other policy fields? What are the governance mechanisms, reform paths, patterns of change and conflict in related policy fields, when countries decide to reform their employment systems? And finally, what are the implications of integrated activation strategies in a multi-level welfare system including European influences and local implementation?

The workshop is organized in the framework of the EU FP7-Project LOCALISE.

Deadline for applications: 15 May 2012

The call is available on: http://www.localise-research.eu/?page_id=9. For further information, please contact Martin Heidenreich ([log in to unmask])