Marketization, Rescaled Responsibilities, and Challenges for Cross-Sector Collaboration in Swedish Employment Services
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18291/njwls.171220Keywords:
Employment, Wages, Unemployment & Rehabilitation, Labor Market Institutions & Social PartnersAbstract
This article analyzes how a recent reform of Swedish employment service delivery reshapes the distribution of responsibilities among state, municipal, and private actors, and the challenges this generates for cross-sector collaboration. The study is based on interviews mainly with municipal employees and private providers in three municipalities. Drawing on Jessop’s theory of welfare state restructuring, the findings show that ‘depoliticization of power’ and ‘de-nationalization of the state’ operate as mutually reinforcing dynamics: responsibilities are transferred both from the state to private providers and, for particularly vulnerable job seekers, from private providers to municipalities. However, the study also identifies challenges to cross-sector collaboration, both through fragmented service provision and uneven local presence of actors, and through what we call ‘restatization of politics’, that is, centralized steering within the Swedish Public Employment Service. These tensions challenge the emergence of a networked polity and may reinforce geographical inequalities in employment service delivery.
Author Biographies
Mattias Bengtsson, University of Gothenburg
Professor in Sociology, Department of Sociology and Work Science
Tora Nord, University of Borås
Senior Lecturer in Work Life Science, Department of Work Life and Social Welfare
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