The unemployed facing activation policies: conforming, distanced and belligerent

Abstract

The current public employment services reveal a consolidation of the paradigm of activation in the field of policies to combat unemployment. As a way of intervention, this activation has given rise  to policies, devices and technologies that lead to a series of situations experienced by the unemployed and whose analysis gives manifest to ambivalence, contradictions and traps to which the aforementioned paradigm leads. This paper studies the case of the activation policies implemented in Andalusia through focus groups with participants in public employment programs. The results indicate the predominance of three representations or ways of experiencing the activation policies. Although one can speak of a consistent experience, the positions demonstrated, albeit with ambivalence, cause distancing and dissent of the citizens towards logic and means with those provided by the current public employment services.