Active Social Policies in the EU: Inclusion Through Participation?

This book challenges the underlying presupposition that regular employment is the royal road to inclusion. Drawing on original empirical research, it investigates the inclusionary and exclusionary potentials of different types of work, including activation programmes.

Active social policies in the EU makes an important contribution to the debates in this area by:

reporting on original international comparative research;

reflecting on and critically assessing current activating policies;

evaluating the consequences of these policies, as well as challenging the premises they are based on;

including the perspectives of service users in its analyses;

offering recommendations for the future design of activating policies.

The book will be invaluable for students, lecturers and researchers of social and labour market policies and policy makers. It is essential reading for those interested in issues of inclusion, activation and the role of types of work in promoting inclusion.

Rik van Berkel is Researcher and Lecturer in Welfare State Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. His main research areas are social and labour market policies and unemployment, on which he has published several books and articles.

Iver Hornemann Møller is Professor in Comparative Welfare Research, Centre for Social Integration and Differentiation in Copenhagen. He has published numerous books and articles on labour market and social policy issues.