Time to Work\u2014Opposing Political Rationality with Young Peoples\u2019 Experiences of Working in a Mandatory Activation Context in Norway

Heidi Moen Gjersøe,Anne Leseth

doi:10.1007/s43151-021-00031-x

Heidi Moen Gjersøe, Anne Leseth

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s43151-021-00031-x

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Abstract

This paper argues that young people, targeted by activation policies, had several temporal experiences with work that can contribute to broadening our understanding of labour market policy for this group of young people. By drawing on qualitative interviews with young people not in employment, education, or training (NEET) in a Norwegian activation context, and by applying anthropological and sociological concepts on temporality and work time in our analysis, we question how time is constructed and reproduced in the establishment of work relations among this group of people. We argue that political discourses of work inclusion for young adults (NEETs) tend to portray work as a means to an end for inclusion. In doing so, they fail to address the complex temporal dimension of work. We find that young adults have a range of complex experiences where disparity between formal and informal aspects of work becomes visible. The temporal dimension of these experiences and the relativity of speed in getting a job are not experienced in a linear manner but as churning between getting a job, having a job, and losing a job.

Highlights

Labour market participation is a key policy tool for inclusion in society (Eriksen 2010)
Getting a Job: a Slow and Linear Pathway or a Fast and Winding Road?. In their encounters at the training centres, which represent the political discourse on work inclusion for young NEETs, our interviewees appeared to be presented with a linear pathway to employment: that of applying for and getting a job in order to become self-sufficient
At the time of the first interviews, Siri and Charles were both on mandatory activation, while applying for jobs

Summary

Introduction

Labour market participation is a key policy tool for inclusion in society (Eriksen 2010). A key concern for many European social policy analysts and policymakers. Journal of Applied Youth Studies (2021) 4:153–167 is how to include young people who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET) in the labour market (Carcillo et al 2015; Frøyland 2018; OECD 2018). NEETs are a diverse group who vary in terms of their distance from and attitude towards the labour market (Furlong 2006; Yates et al 2011). NEETs can face multiple barriers to work, including a lack of work experience, health problems, caring responsibilities, and poor qualifications (Sissons and Jones 2012; OECD 2018; Frischsenteret & Oslo Economics 2019). Responses to youth unemployment and economic inactivity vary across European welfare states. There seem to be similarities between countries such as the Nordic countries and the UK, where one primarily tends to concentrate on individual cases rather than on addressing the structural and societal causes of unemployment and other forms of exclusion (Thompson 2011; Yates et al 2011)

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