The promotion of capabilities in Sweden: a case study of the contraction of shipbuilding in Gothenburg

Abstract

PurposeUsing the example of a project dedicated to labour market re‐activation in major shipyards in Sweden (Gothenburg) in the late 1970s, the purpose of this paper is to examine how integrated employment policies may be achieved using more deliberative public action than that offered by New Public Management (NPM).Design/methodology/approachBased on original archival research and interviews with ex‐participants, the research reconstructs how this project was designed and operated; its analysis is based on a capability perspective.FindingsThe paper analyses the problems encountered by projects promoting labour market integration and personal capabilities in the context of a productivity drive in a contracting industry that requires the retention of the most productive workers to stave off industrial collapse. It argues that deliberative democracy offers the more effective means for co‐ordinating integrated employment policies than governance strategies associated with NPM.Practical implicationsThis paper offers an example highly pertinent to the labour market conditions currently facing European economies in the current financial crisis.Originality/valueThe paper offers original insights into the operation of the Swedish social model in practice, in a context of industrial crisis. Many scholars have analysed this model of labour market management from a national perspective: far fewer have addressed its practical limitations.