More of the same? The European Employment Strategy and the normalization of British employment policies

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which the European Employment Strategy seeks to govern and further improve the performance of British employment policies. It is argued that by creating an epistemological and normalizing space for the problematization and governing of unemployment in terms of activation, the European Employment Strategy contributes to the legitimation of British employment policies. By addressing unemployment as a problem of structural labor market barriers, missing incentives and inadequate employability, the European Employment Strategy serves to reinforce the British preference for tackling unemployment through a host of activation and training measures and seeking to get the unemployed into work as fast as possible. Other ways of problematizing and handling unemployment seem excluded by default.

Keywords:

• unemployment
• active society
• normalization
• power
• governance

Notes

1. Although employment policy is devolved in Northern Ireland, this article – like the EES – treats the British employment policy as a whole, i.e. no separate analysis is made of the eventual unique features of Northern Ireland in this regard. For this qualification and several other critical suggestions, I am indebted to the reviewers of Critical Policy Studies.

2. cf. http://www.mutual-learning-employment.net/peer-reviews/.

3. http://www.mutual-learning-employment.net/peer-reviews/unitedkingdom/.

4. http://www.mutual-learning-employment.net/thematicreviews/.