Alexandru Panican

Active Inclusion as an Organisational challenge: integrated anti-poverty policies in three European countries :

Active inclusion aims at the reduction of poverty by strengthening the agency of excluded persons by the provision of a minimum income, activation and social services. The contribution to poverty alleviation is determined by expenditure levels and the organisation of these three policy fields. This can be shown by three examples: The comprehensive Swedish regime is characterised by high expenditures; the redistributive German regime is characterised by lower service levels and in Italy, all three dimensions are least developed. In addition, the organisation of services differs: Decentralised and discretionary system for the provision of services in Sweden, “creaming and parking” effects in Germany and fragmented providers in Italy. As a result of different expenditure levels and organisational patterns, the selectivity of active inclusion strategies is low in Sweden, medium in Germany and high in Italy. Both the financial and organisational dimensions of active inclusion therefore are decisive for poverty alleviation.

Social rights in the shadow of poor relief – social assistance in the universal Swedish welfare state

Abstract The idea of a European social citizenship is being developed by the EU to provide a minimum safety net. Questions about social citizenship are of fundamental importance in people’s everyday lives. Social assistance is a central dimension when studying social citizenship. Before discussing in terms of a European social citizenship, we should determine whether we have a social citizenship at the national level. We therefore analyse the Swedish welfare state, one of the most mature welfare states in the EU. We conclude that the social right to social assistance is not part of modern citizenship, nor does it follow the formal principles of legal citizenship rights. The law presupposes a considerable amount of discretionary power at the local level when it comes to identifying the deserving poor; something that goes against the definition of a legal citizenship right. The right to social assistance is still a reproduction of the old poor-relief logic.

The Growing Emphasis on Social Citizenship in Nordic Education – Inducing New Social Risks While Trying to Alleviate Them

Education as a social right has been gaining strong prominence in the Nordic countries transition towards the post-industrial society. I focused the Swedish educational system. The study finds that the right to education turned into a moral duty to be an enlightened citizen. The interviewees’ stigmatize vocational programmes and encourage pupils to choose ‘right’ meaning school-based education. Authorities refuse to provide jobs which not require upper secondary school, even when unskilled jobs are available and regardless of the youngster’s preferences and abilities. While implement social rights to combat school dropouts, unemployment and social exclusion, officials generate such social risks that they have the responsibility for overcoming. (Less)

Approaches, actors and models of vertical collaborative governance arrangements in combating poverty – five European cities compared

Discovering methods to combat poverty and social exclusion has now become a major political challenge in Europe. This book offers an original and timely analysis of how actors at the European, national and subnational levels meet this challenge. Combining perspectives on multilevel and network coordination, the editors discuss to what extent actors join forces in these efforts and identify the factors limiting the coordination achieved in practice. The book builds on a European study comparing Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the UK.

Apprenticeship training in upper secondary school : Motives and possibilities from a European and Swedish perspective

Apprenticeship training is a form of education that arouses a great deal of interest as regards the challenges that characterise conditions for young people on the current labour market. This is ob ...

An education policy paradigm that fails upper secondary school pupils

Abstract In this article, we illustrate the creation of the education policy paradigm that constitutes the framework of vocational education and training (VET) programmes, and analyse local school representatives’ perception of VET in upper secondary schools in Sweden. The education policy paradigm, established through three periods of reform during the twentieth century, undervalues VET as being less worthy than general/academic education. This paradigm generates the rhetoric used by interviewed school representatives that encourages school pupils to choose the ‘right’ (academic) programmes in order to foster a specific citizenship competence, even if this competence is not fully compatible with labour market demands. Young people who cannot, or will not, attain the ‘right’ education, and thus the advocated citizenship competence, lose out in a school system where general/academic education and higher education preparatory programmes are consistently prioritised over VET. An educational system that advocates discrimination and suspicion of VET limits career options and restricts entry into the labour market, as well as risk stigmatising pupils undertaking VET; this paradigm is neither justified nor democratic.

Apprenticeship Training in Upper Secondary School : Motives and Possibilities from a Swedish and European Perspective

Apprenticeship training is a form of education that arouses a great deal of interest as regards the challenges that characterise conditions for young people on the current labour market. This is obvious both in Sweden and in other comparable countries. This chapter begin by illustrating the changed conditions for establishment of young people, a factor that may help to enhance understanding of why issues of apprenticeship training are so high on the political agenda. After that, we will look at relevant experiences linked with vocational education and training (VET) and apprenticeship training in Sweden as well as at the European Union (EU) level. Our main issue relates to what basic requirements that have to be in place for establishing an apprenticeship training model and what challenges a country like Sweden – with its tradition of school-based VET – will face when aiming to initiate more of a classical apprenticeship training approach.

Worlds of active inclusion at local level : a comparative analysis

This chapter compares active inclusion strategies in five European cities with high problem pressure. The focus is on minimum income protection with particular attention paid to social assistance as well as to activation policies and the role of the third-sector in providing support and services. The local active inclusion strategies studied diverge substantially regarding the level of market-oriented, bureaucratic and participatory focus, each case displays its own unique landscape of active inclusion. The legacy of previous local welfare arrangements strongly influences the implementation of active inclusion polices. The main conclusion is that the legacies and the composition of each local welfare system conceptualize the concept of active inclusion, to some degree regardless institutional architecture strategies and changes at both national and EU levels. (Less)

Strategies Against Poverty in a Social Democratic Local Welfare System: Still the Responsibility of Public Actors?

This chapter analyses local strategies against poverty and social exclusion in Sweden, often seen as illustrative of a Social Democratic welfare regime. The chapter addresses whether public actors play such a significant role in local anti-poverty strategies as established regime-debates suggest. Empirical investigations cover patterns of coordination between the social assistance system and activation services at local level as well as the functions local civil society organisations fulfil in providing the poor with support and services. Our findings show that despite extensive local autonomy and high pressure on the social assistance system, civil society actors play a limited role in the local welfare system. The local welfare system is furthermore characterised by extensive coordination problems between forms of minimum income support and local activation services.

A move to the local?: The relevance of a local welfare system approach

Fighting poverty and promoting active inclusion is a major challenge for most European welfare states. This chapter argues that much current welfare research has focused on national policies and systems despite most anti-poverty strategies are put into practice at local level. The chapter explores the local welfare system approach and maintains that it is important to study the role public and civil society actors play and local strategies against poverty, what welfare governance arrangements that prevail in contacts between them and how local welfare systems are connected to higher levels of steering and regulation. The chapter reviews existing research on welfare and social assistance regimes and presents the five local cases to be studied in the volume. (Less)