I’m Not Worthless, I Do Help Society
Exploring the Lived Experience of Community Placement in Activation Schemes
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6452206 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carla Petautschnig (0000-0002-0142-824X, Trinity College Dublin, corresponding author), Virpi Timonen (0000-0001-7061-3943, University of Helsinki) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 601-615 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-24 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Policy and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1474-7464 • E-ISSN: 1475-3073 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1474746423000490 |
| OpenAlex | W4391172094 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 75 |
Activation schemes are widely criticised, with the negative experiences of ‘the activated’ featuring prominently in the literature. This article presents the findings of a constructivist grounded theory study concerning the lived experience of long-term unemployment, welfare recipiency and community placement in activation schemes in Ireland, with a focus on the positive effects that participating in such schemes had on participants’ subjective well-being. For the participants in this research, community placement signified change, respite, and recovery that improved their subjective well-being by creating an experience that counteracted the draining experience of long-term unemployment and welfare recipiency. This study brings new elements to the discussion on the role of activation in promoting/diminishing the subjective well-being of the long-term unemployed
Lived experience · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Psychology · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Welfare to Work in Contemporary European Welfare States
Creating an Ecosocial Welfare Future
The Political Economy of Work and Welfare
Unemployment and mental health scarring during the life course
The Individual Experience of Unemployment
Unemployment impairs mental health
Welfare to Work in Contemporary European Welfare States
Navigating indifference
Participation, Responsibility and Choice
Welfare to Work
Beyond 'employability'
Activation or Workfare? Governance and the Neo-Liberal Convergence
The Death of Unemployment and the Birth of Job-Seeking in Welfare Policy
Work and thrive or claim and skive
The Transformation of Solidarity
Making our Way through the World
Interviews – Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing
Living with and responding to the 'scrounger' narrative in the UK
Workfare – a Blast from the Past? Contemporary Work Conditionality for the Unemployed in Historical Perspective
The Fragility of Self-Respect
What Can Welfare Stigma Do
Set up to Fail’? How Welfare Conditionality Undermines Citizenship for Vulnerable Groups
Enabling Participation Income for an Eco-Social State
What Role for Activation in Eco-Social Policy
Passing Stigma
Pushing against an open door’
Positive affect as coercive strategy
A personalised approach in activation. Workfare volunteers’ experiences with activation practitioners
The Obligation to Volunteer as Fair Reciprocity? Welfare Recipients’ Perceptions of Giving Back to Society
Is My Volunteer Job Not Real Work?’ The Experiences of Migrant Women with Finding Employment Through Volunteer Work
A period of contention? The politics of post-crisis activation reform and the creeping marketisation of public employment services
Pedagogies of optimism
Privatizing employment services in Britain
The re-signification of state-funded community development in Ireland
Rational skivers or desperate strivers? The problematisation of fraud in the Irish social protection system
A hand up or a slap down? Criminalising benefit claimants in Britain via strategies of surveillance, sanctions and deterrence
Low road or high road? The post-crisis trajectory of Irish activation
Unemployment, wellbeing and the power of the work ethic
Between Retrenchment and Recalibration
Employment and unemployment
Out of the Generosity of Your Heart
Irish Flex‐insecurity
Reversing the Negative Experience of Unemployment
Work Activation Regimes and Well‐being of Unemployed People
Work, welfare, and wellbeing
Activation, health and well‐being
The ‘New Public Governance’ and Employability Services in an Era of Crisis
Personalization and Street‐level Practice in Activation
Conceptualising the active welfare subject
Between workfare and enablement – The different paths to transformation of the welfare state
Challenges When Using Grounded Theory
Emotional Compliance and Emotion as Resistance
If I Don't Have to Work Anymore,Who Am I
Re-Thinking Unemployment
Charity and Shame
Governing the unemployed self in an active society
Co-Creation in an era of Welfare Conditionality - Lessons from Denmark
The stigma of claiming benefits
Working on Welfare
Welfare-to-work, Agency and Personal Responsibility
Re-conceptualising Welfare-To-Work for People with Multiple Problems and Needs
State Intervention and Mental Well-being Among the Unemployed
Do Active Labour Market Policies Promote the Well-Being, Health and Social Capital of the Unemployed? Evidence from the UK
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |