The local governance of active inclusion: A field for social partner action

Abstract

The idea of ‘active inclusion’ was embraced by the European Commission in 2008 and supported financially through the European Social Fund, inspiring national and subnational reforms throughout Europe. This article analyses the role played by social partners in its implementation, using three comparative case studies to assess its transposition at the local level in Spain, France and Sweden. Despite convergence in the vocabulary used by actors involved in labour market governance, translation into local measures is different, with significant implications for policy-making. To explain the varieties of active inclusion, I focus on the interplay between structure and the agency of competing local political and social actors who participate in labour market governance.