Brotherhood of St Laurence lunchtime seminar - Young people and activation employment policies

Active labour market policies aim to improve economic self-reliance by moving people into work and off state-funded welfare. Policy measures range from curtailing benefits to tightening eligibility to making welfare conditional upon fulfilling certain job search activities and punishing recipients for non-compliance. Underpinning this approach is a set of contestable assumptions about the behaviour and morality of welfare recipients. Guided by critical social inquiry and drawing on interviews with young people, this presentation proposes a theoretical frame for considering action and choice that challenges policy assumptions about the sources of unemployment.

Sonia Martin is Research & Policy Manager, Through School to Work at the Brotherhood of St Laurence. Sonia’s recent interests are in the area of social policy and include issues of welfare reform, youth, social inclusion/exclusion, stigma and community development.