Reinventing the Employable Citizen: A Perspective for Social Work

Abstract

In workfare-as-welfare regimes, welfare states attempt to increase efforts to employ economically inactive individuals, such as people with chronic 'mental health problems', through a wide range of activation strategies. In this article, we draw upon insights obtained from a recent research project in Belgium, in which social workers are charged with managing labour market training programmes. In the project, we explored the experiences of people with 'mental health problems' to identify ways in which supportive tenets for people in search of employment can be constructed. We aim to transfer the Belgian experience to the British context in an analysis of the various notions and interpretations of citizenship in social practices. In the analysis, we differentiate between notions and experiences of normative and relational citizenship. In conclusion, we argue that a relational approach to citizenship enables social workers in Belgium to make use of their discretionary space to (re)negotiate the finality of employment trajectories in a flexible way. From an international perspective, we conclude that social workers are in a critical position to influence the workfare-as-welfare agenda of social policy makers.