From Rights to Management

This study addresses the transformation of the concept of work between the years 1970 and 2000. The authors remind us of what we now might easily forget: that, not so long ago, the right of an unemployed person to social security benefits and services was not questioned. Over the years, this right has been gradually replaced by a two-way bargain with the state and in the place of this old "social citizenship", there has arisen a government-corporate alliance that manages job seekers by contract. The shift from the needs of the person to the demands of business is complete. The interdisciplinary discussion in the book incorporates debates about civil society, social capital and other germane topics of great concern to scholars, policymakers and administrators in this era of globalization. A deep analysis of the new policy network of social services examines the types of contracts that govern the various parts of the system.