The Promise and Deception of Participation in Welfare Services for Unemployed Young People
Matthies, A.-L., Närhi, K., & Kokkonen, T. (2018). The Promise and Deception of Participation in Welfare Services for Unemployed Young People. Critical Social Work, 19(2), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.22329/csw.v19i2.5677
Published in
Critical Social WorkDate
2018Copyright
© 2019 Authors and University of Windsor
This study examined the role of welfare services in the participative citizenship of young people under 30 years of age outside the labour market. Thematic content analysis of the government’s white papers regarding participation policies, as well as participatory action research projects in two Finnish towns, were used to identify factors that enable or hinder participation for this group of service users. The paradigm of participation was critically examined with reference to the theoretical framework of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s “dialectic of Enlightenment”, which proposes the parallel existence of the promise and the deception of Enlightenment. The results indicated that user participation holds the potential to promote democratization, consolidation, and qualitative improvements in services, especially by valuing experience-based knowledge and enabling the growing political citizenship of young people. However, the promises of the paradigm of participation can turn toward deception when applied as a managerialistic workfare instrument to control young people’s behaviour and can even deepen marginalization by focusing only on their absence from workforce participation. The ambivalent role of social sciences and social work as agencies of Enlightenment in developing participation technologies is also discussed.
...
Publisher
University of WindsorISSN Search the Publication Forum
1543-9372Keywords
Publication in research information system
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/33794707
Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
Additional information about funding
Suomen Akatemia 138300License
Related items
Showing items with similar title or keywords.
-
The contribution of morbidity and unemployment for the reduced labor market participation of individuals with neurofibromatosis 1 in Finland
Kallionpää, Roope A.; Johansson, Edvard; Böckerman, Petri; Peltonen, Juha; Peltonen, Sirkku (S. Karger, 2024)Neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) is a multisystem disorder associated with, for example, a high risk for cancer, a variety of behavioral and cognitive deficits, low educational attainment and decreased income. We now examined the ... -
Workers’ and volunteers’ ideas about the benefits of young people’s cultural participation : a critical capital-based approach
Husu, Hanna-Mari; Kumpulainen, Kaisu (Routledge, 2021)This article deals with non-profit sector and voluntary workers’ understandings of the benefits of young people’s participation in cultural and leisure projects in Central Finland. Active participation is highlighted on a ... -
Habitus and care : investigating welfare service workers' agency
Hirvonen, Helena (University of Jyväskylä, 2014) -
Finnish welfare service system from the standpoint of women in vulnerable life situations
Virokannas, Elina; Salovaara, Ulla; Krok, Suvi; Kuronen, Marjo (Routledge, 2021)In this chapter, the authors analyse how the Finnish welfare service system, as it consists of different institutions and professionals, meets or fails to meet the needs of women in varying vulnerable life situations. The ... -
Incarcerated women, welfare services and the process of re-entering society in Finland
Salovaara, Ulla (Routledge, 2021)The pathways in and out of crime differ according to gender, people’s life histories, social situations and networks. Before being sentenced, many women have been living in vulnerable and traumatic life situations and ...