Promoting ‘Employ ability’: the changing subject of welfare reform in the UK

Abstract

This paper provides a critical social semiotic analysis of the UK Department of Work and Pensions ‘Employ ability’ initiative. Although this initiative can be read as an attempt to reduce the exclusion of people with disabilities from the workplace, it is argued that the ‘Employ ability’ initiative, should be read as part of a discursive strategy to legitimate neo-liberal welfare reforms, where policies relating to the employment and underemployment of people with disabilities remain fixed almost entirely on the supply side rather than the demand side of labour. A number of semiotic resources are identified that attempt to make a neo-liberal ‘problematic’ appear to be a natural and common sense response to questions of welfare. Most notable is the use of an ‘empowerment’ discourse that seeks to legitimate a (self) disciplinary welfare regime and attempts to fabricate an active citizenry so necessary to the demands of neo-liberalism.

Keywords:

• employability
• social policy
• neo-liberal
• semiotics
• agency

Notes

The DDA, originally introduced in 1995, now significantly extended, most recently by the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, is a law designed to end discrimination against disabled people. Under the Disability Discrimination Act, small to medium-sized businesses have to make reasonable adjustments so they do not discriminate against disabled customers or employees. If employers fail to do what is reasonable, legal action can be taken for treating the person with a ‘disability’ unfairly.