Rik Van Berkel
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 4238451 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Rik Van Berkel |
| NOMBRES | Rik |
| APELLIDO | Van Berkel |
| FIRMA | VAN BERKEL R |
| AFILIACIONES | Utrecht University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4866-2778 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 53 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 429 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 30 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 31 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2002 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 12 |
Employers’ Capabilities, Opportunities, and Motivations to Employ People with Disabilities
This article explores the capabilities, opportunities, and motivations (COM) for the employment of people with disabilities (PWD) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Norway and the Netherlands. This COM-B (behavior) model provides useful insights for developing demand-side policies aimed at promoting PWD’s labour-market participation. Four groups of SMEs are distinguished: inclusive SMEs, non-inclusive SMEs, SMEs with the intention to…
Managing Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Performance by Promoting Professional Behavior Through HRM
This article connects human resource management (HRM) research to studies of street-level bureaucracies and public professionals. It investigates the intermediary role of professional behavior in the HRM–individual performance link in the context of public human service organizations. The article hypothesizes that human resources (HR) practices, aimed at enhancing street-level workers’ abilities, motivation, and opportunities, strengthen these wo…
Practising professionalism in activation work
The professional nature and professionalisation of the street‐level delivery of activation policies have received increasing attention in academic debate. The study reported in this article contributes to this debate in two ways. The first way is to elaborate a multidimensional conceptualisation of practising professionalism in activation work, distinguishing eight dimensions: knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, knowledge use, innovation, a…
Employer Engagement in Promoting the Labour-Market Participation of Jobseekers with Disabilities. An Employer Perspective
This article contributes to the literature on engaging employers in activation policies. It focuses on a specific policy aimed at promoting the labour-market participation of people with disabilities. Unlike many activation policies, this policy recognises that the engagement of employers and the human resource management practices in their organisations are crucial factors for the policy’s success. The article reports on a study among employers …
Making welfare conditional
This article looks at how welfare conditionality is delivered at the street level. It argues that the street‐level delivery of welfare conditionality is structured by policies, the governance context in which workers deliver welfare conditionality, the organization in which they work, and the occupation they are part of. Characteristics of these contexts present street‐level workers with a variety of signals and incentives that direct their decis…
Beyond Marginality?
Beyond Marginality?
European Citizenship and Social Exclusion
This is the product of a European network on Social Exclusion and the Development of European Citizenship (SEDEC) involving 11 research centres and individual researchers. The network has been running since 1994 and was initiated with the support of Sheffield University's Political Economy Research Centre (PERC) and the Department of Sociological Studies. The book is concerned with the contemporary dynamics and debates around Europe on social and…
Introduction
This themed issue contributes to European research on the role of front‐line work in the implementation of welfare‐to‐work policies. A number of factors underline the relevance of such study. First, the focus on activating and disciplining the unemployed seen in many countries may on the surface look similar. However, a closer look at these policies and how they unfold in different contexts reveals many and interesting differences. While all cont…
Conclusions and Topics for Future Research
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book outlines the relevance of frontline work studies in the delivery of activation or welfare-to-work policies. It aims to gain insight into how frontline workers in organizations and agencies responsible for the provision of welfare-to-work actually deliver policies and services and how these 'activation practices' are structured…
Frontline Delivery of Welfare-to-Work Policies in Europe
The debate on activation policies and challenges to social citizenship has to go beyond the level of formal policy and take into account also its operational and street-level dimension, which shapes what eventually arrives as policy on the ground. In this context, frontline practice plays a crucial role since it constitutes the very moment when activation policies encounter their target groups and real-world solutions have to be found. This artic…
The frontline delivery of activation
This article intends to contribute to the increasing body of academic literature on the frontline delivery of activation policies. In line with the broader literature on frontline work, this literature focuses attention on frontline delivery practices and preferences and how these can be explained. Activation work is an interesting case in this context, because activation workers’ jobs designs vary considerably and workers have a diversity of edu…
Performance Management, Caseloads and the Frontline Provision of Social Services
Caseloads and performance management are important working conditions of workers delivering public social services in street‐level organizations. The literature on these working conditions argues that high caseloads and performance management have considerable consequences for workers' performance in terms of the quality of services they provide and the results they realize. This article empirically investigates and compares these consequences, d…
New Welfare, New Policies
Debates about the new welfare, and the new social policies that go (or should go) with it, share an emphasis on risk-prevention strategies and pluralistic risk management. Focusing specifically on the risk of unemployment, this article discusses the case for so-called preventive worker-directed active labour market policies as part of the new welfare architecture. These policies are aimed at preventing unemployment and promoting labour-market tra…
Quasi‐markets and the Delivery of Activation – A Frontline Perspective
This article analyzes the delivery of activation or welfare‐to‐work programmes and services in the context of quasi‐market service provision. It adopts a frontline perspective, looking in particular into two issues often discussed in the literature on quasi‐markets: risk selection in provider agencies and the administrative costs and burden related to monitoring provider agencies and agents. Data from a D utch study of frontline workers in purcha…
Innovating job activation by involving employers
This article explores the nature of innovative employer‐oriented activation policies, which aim to influence employers’ willingness to hire or possibly train and guide the unemployed. These policies may focus on responsibilities with regards to activation, which offer services to employers or provide incentives to influence employers’ involvement. Employers may take up a role as client or as co‐producer during policy implementation. Qualitative e…
Innovative social and labour market policies in Europe in times of crisis
Employment is crucial for people’s well-being and economic growth. Promoting job creation and tackling the economic and social consequences of unemployment, underemployment and preventing social exclusion are a priority for all our countries. Although G20 countries are at different stages of development and there is no “one size fits all” labour market policy, G20 countries will benefit from well-designed, integrated and consistent public policie…
Work and the Welfare State
Work and the Welfare State places street-level organizations at the analytic center of welfare state politics, policy and management. This volume offers a critical examination of efforts to change the welfare state to a workfare state by looking at on-the-ground issues in six countries: the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.
Governance and implementation of activation policies
The purpose of this paper is to explore the question regarding how the similar \nimplementation traditions in two countries (Czech Republic and Italy) have influenced the \nimplementation of activation policies in the frame of similar reform trajectories (decentralization and \nmarketization) but different modes of governance (multilevel vs hierarchical)
Decentralization and centralization
Purpose The purpose of this article is to examine the governance of activation in relation to the decentralization and centralization of activation for social assistance recipients in Sweden, The Netherlands and the UK. Design/methodology/approach This paper outlines broad trends in the governance of activation policies in Europe, focusing on processes of decentralization and centralization in Sweden (characterized by a context of shifting nation…
Governance of the activation policies in Europe
Purpose The purpose of this introduction to the special issue is to give an overview of the key aspects of the governance of activation policies as discussed in the existing literature. It explains the focus and contribution of this special issue and provides a brief summary of the main findings in the individual articles. Design/methodology/approach In this special issue the comparative analysis of the key aspects of governance of activation pol…
New public governance and activation
Purpose The purpose of this article is to assess the emergence of New Public Management in the governance of activation policies in nine European countries. In the light of considerable diversity in the implementation of New Public Management in the different countries, the article tries to identify common patterns. Design/methodology/approach For the identification of patterns, fuzzy set theory is applied. Fuzzy sets are used to define ideal typ…
Converging worlds of activation
Purpose The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between the emerging European activation policies and the evolution of domestic activation policies and its governance. Drawing on the emerging Europeanization debate and comparative literature on activation, the crucial research question will be the following: is there a European Union (EU)‐induced convergence in domestic activation policies in the EU? Design/methodology/approach…
Network governance in activation policy – health care as an emergent partner
Purpose The purpose of this article is to describe the implementation and results of Finnish activation policy from the viewpoint of integrated services and in the framework of network governance. Special emphasis is given to examining the role of health care as an emergent partner in activation. Design/methodology/approach The functioning of integrated activation policy is addressed from the perspective of network governance. Network governance …
Activation Work
This article focuses on the design of frontline work in public agencies involved in the delivery of activation programmes and services. More specifically, it raises the following questions: should we think of activation work as an administrative function or as a form of professional service provision? And does the design of activation work matter in terms of the effectiveness of activation services? In answering these questions, the article provi…
The Provision of Income Protection and Activation Services for the Unemployed in 'Active' Welfare States. An International Comparison
This article discusses reforms of the design of the organisational arena for policy implementation and service provision in European welfare states, focusing on the policy areas of income protection and activation. First, it discusses and compares recent reform programmes in four countries: the UK, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. The comparison shows that these reforms share some common characteristics: the establishment of one-stop agencie…
New Modes of Governance in Italy and the Netherlands
This article discusses the growing importance of operational reforms in the context of welfare state transformation processes, and the role that principles of new governance play in shaping these reforms. It focuses specifically on one social policy area considered crucial in reforming welfare states: the provision of activation services that aim at increasing the employability and labour‐market participation of people dependent on benefits or so…
The marketization of activation services
The introduction of market mechanisms is a crucial part of the new modes of governance emerging EU-wide in order to modernize the public sector. This article focuses on the introduction of marketization in the provision of activation services. The article draws on the Dutch experience, where activation services have been provided by private for-profit companies for several years now. In the first part, the emergence of new modes of governance is …
Innovating job activation by involving employers
This article explores the nature of innovative employer‐oriented activation policies, which aim to influence employers’ willingness to hire or possibly train and guide the unemployed. These policies may focus on responsibilities with regards to activation, which offer services to employers or provide incentives to influence employers’ involvement. Employers may take up a role as client or as co‐producer during policy implementation. Qualitative e…
Individualised service provision in an era of activation and new governance
Purpose This article aims to discuss the individualisation trend in the provision of social services, focusing on activation services specifically. Design/methodology/approach The individualisation trend in the provision of activation services is analysed against the background of public sector as well as social sector as well as social policy reforms: the introduction of new modes of governance and the rise of the active welfare state respective…
The “double dynamics” of activation
Purpose This paper aims to explore activation policy as a condensate for new forms of governance in respect of welfare institutions and in relation to welfare subjects. It asks how far apparently similar concepts – contractualisation, individuation, personalisation – can be applied to the governance of institutions and the governance of persons. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on a model of different governance regimes to trace differ…
Professionals without a profession? Redesigning case management in Dutch local welfare agencies
This article explores the new roles of frontline workers in Dutch local welfare agencies against the background of recent active welfare state reforms, with a specific focus on frontline workers involved in activating social assistance recipients. The results presented in the article come from case studies in four local welfare agencies. The article investigates how active welfare state reforms have influenced the room for discretion of frontline…
Performance Management, Caseloads and the Frontline Provision of Social Services
Caseloads and performance management are important working conditions of workers delivering public social services in street‐level organizations. The literature on these working conditions argues that high caseloads and performance management have considerable consequences for workers' performance in terms of the quality of services they provide and the results they realize. This article empirically investigates and compares these consequences, d…
Activation Work
This article focuses on the design of frontline work in public agencies involved in the delivery of activation programmes and services. More specifically, it raises the following questions: should we think of activation work as an administrative function or as a form of professional service provision? And does the design of activation work matter in terms of the effectiveness of activation services? In answering these questions, the article provi…
Introduction
This article introduces the central topic of the thematic section of this issue: the governance of activation. It applies the concept of governance to new service provision models and considers why this is a relevant issue for social policy scholars. Then, it provides a brief discussion of several aspects of the new service provision models that are being introduced all over Europe, where income protection schemes and activation policies are conc…
Making welfare conditional
This article looks at how welfare conditionality is delivered at the street level. It argues that the street‐level delivery of welfare conditionality is structured by policies, the governance context in which workers deliver welfare conditionality, the organization in which they work, and the occupation they are part of. Characteristics of these contexts present street‐level workers with a variety of signals and incentives that direct their decis…
New modes of governance in activation policies
Purpose This editorial aims to introduce the first of a set of two special issues on New modes of governance in activation policies. Design/methodology/approach The article explores the concept of governance, distinguishing a broad and more narrow use of the concept. Then, it argues that issues of governance should be an integral part of studies of welfare state transformations. Not in the last instance, because governance reforms do have an impa…
Governance of the activation policies in Europe
Purpose The purpose of this introduction to the special issue is to give an overview of the key aspects of the governance of activation policies as discussed in the existing literature. It explains the focus and contribution of this special issue and provides a brief summary of the main findings in the individual articles. Design/methodology/approach In this special issue the comparative analysis of the key aspects of governance of activation pol…
Implementing public employment policy
Purpose The purpose of the article is to analyse the interconnections between formal policy reforms and operational policies, specifically between new governance and employment policy. The main question is what happens to public employment policies when they are contracted out to non‐public (for‐profit and not‐for‐profit) agencies? Design/methodology/approach The case is the contracting out of the public employment services in Australia, Holland,…
Decentralization and centralization
Purpose The purpose of this article is to examine the governance of activation in relation to the decentralization and centralization of activation for social assistance recipients in Sweden, The Netherlands and the UK. Design/methodology/approach This paper outlines broad trends in the governance of activation policies in Europe, focusing on processes of decentralization and centralization in Sweden (characterized by a context of shifting nation…
Introduction
This themed issue contributes to European research on the role of front‐line work in the implementation of welfare‐to‐work policies. A number of factors underline the relevance of such study. First, the focus on activating and disciplining the unemployed seen in many countries may on the surface look similar. However, a closer look at these policies and how they unfold in different contexts reveals many and interesting differences. While all cont…
Re‐activating the Nordic welfare states
Purpose To clarify the core characteristics of Nordic activation policies in the context of typologies of European activation governance. Design/methodology/approach The paper analyses activation governance in the light of the basic values and beliefs behind the formation of the Nordic social protection systems in the mid‐20th century. Recent model‐building efforts see the Nordic countries as being close to a “universalistic” and egalitarian type…
Governing the activation of older workers in the European Union
Purpose This paper seeks to evaluate the EU's “active ageing” agenda as a governance strategy for the activation of older workers, and its impact on the regulation both of those who make, and those who are the objects of, policy. This case study is used to reflect more broadly on the implications of governance strategies for the regulation of social subjects in the European Union (EU). Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a model of gover…
The decentralisation of social assistance in The Netherlands
Purpose The aim of this paper is to make a preliminary assessment of the impacts of the decentralisation of Dutch social assistance. Design/methodology/approach Even though decentralisation is often promoted as a new governance instrument, balancing centralised and decentralised aspects has been a feature of Social Assistance systems for a long time. This article describes how processes of decentralisation in Dutch Social Assistance in the contex…
Quasi‐markets and the Delivery of Activation – A Frontline Perspective
This article analyzes the delivery of activation or welfare‐to‐work programmes and services in the context of quasi‐market service provision. It adopts a frontline perspective, looking in particular into two issues often discussed in the literature on quasi‐markets: risk selection in provider agencies and the administrative costs and burden related to monitoring provider agencies and agents. Data from a D utch study of frontline workers in purcha…
The frontline delivery of activation
This article intends to contribute to the increasing body of academic literature on the frontline delivery of activation policies. In line with the broader literature on frontline work, this literature focuses attention on frontline delivery practices and preferences and how these can be explained. Activation work is an interesting case in this context, because activation workers’ jobs designs vary considerably and workers have a diversity of edu…
New Welfare, New Policies
Debates about the new welfare, and the new social policies that go (or should go) with it, share an emphasis on risk-prevention strategies and pluralistic risk management. Focusing specifically on the risk of unemployment, this article discusses the case for so-called preventive worker-directed active labour market policies as part of the new welfare architecture. These policies are aimed at preventing unemployment and promoting labour-market tra…
Contextualising new modes of governance in activation policies
Purpose The first part of the paper aimed to interpret the changes addressed by the concepts of governance and activation in their context, in order to grasp the larger picture of the societal transformation underlying them: the starting point is the assumption that new modes of governance in activation policies are a fruitful entry point for effectively understanding deep waves of change of contemporary society. The second part aims to briefly i…
Employer Engagement in Promoting the Labour-Market Participation of Jobseekers with Disabilities. An Employer Perspective
This article contributes to the literature on engaging employers in activation policies. It focuses on a specific policy aimed at promoting the labour-market participation of people with disabilities. Unlike many activation policies, this policy recognises that the engagement of employers and the human resource management practices in their organisations are crucial factors for the policy’s success. The article reports on a study among employers …
Converging worlds of activation
Purpose The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between the emerging European activation policies and the evolution of domestic activation policies and its governance. Drawing on the emerging Europeanization debate and comparative literature on activation, the crucial research question will be the following: is there a European Union (EU)‐induced convergence in domestic activation policies in the EU? Design/methodology/approach…
Active social policies in the EU
Active social policies in the EU
Active social policies in the EU
The concept of activation
This chapter examines the development of active social policies, and elaborates upon the concept of activation. It explores the shift from passive to active social policies in the EU in general, and at the EU policy making level in particular, as a paradigm shift in which the main objective of social policies is being transformed from protection to participation. It argues that activation is not a uniform concept and distinguishes four ideal acti…
Active social policies in the EUInclusion through participation?
The concepts of social exclusion and work, Iver Hornemann Moller, Rik van Berkel, Colin Williams The rise of activating policies, Rik van Berkel, Iver Hornemann Moller Activating policies in Europe, Henning Hansen and Pedro Hespanha Research into the inclusionary potentials of types of work, Marisol Garcia, Jan de Schampheleire Inclusion through participation? Strengths and weaknesses of activation schemes, Carlos Machado and Cyril Tholen Domains…
Active Social Policies in the EU
This book challenges the underlying presupposition that regular employment is the royal road to inclusion. Drawing on original empirical research, it investigates the inclusionary and exclusionary potentials of different types of work, including activation programmes.
The marketization of activation services
The introduction of market mechanisms is a crucial part of the new modes of governance emerging EU-wide in order to modernize the public sector. This article focuses on the introduction of marketization in the provision of activation services. The article draws on the Dutch experience, where activation services have been provided by private for-profit companies for several years now. In the first part, the emergence of new modes of governance is …
The decentralisation of social assistance in The Netherlands
Purpose The aim of this paper is to make a preliminary assessment of the impacts of the decentralisation of Dutch social assistance. Design/methodology/approach Even though decentralisation is often promoted as a new governance instrument, balancing centralised and decentralised aspects has been a feature of Social Assistance systems for a long time. This article describes how processes of decentralisation in Dutch Social Assistance in the contex…
Making it personal
Making it personal
Making It Personal
This is an English version of a text on public policy analysis originally written for practitioners in Switzerland and France. It presents a model for the analysis of public policy and includes examples of its application in everyday situations. This English version introduces supplementary illustrations and examples from the United Kingdom.
Making it personal
New modes of governance in activation policies
Making It Personal
Social Assistance Dynamics in the Netherlands
The current emphasis in European welfare states on ‘activation’ increases the relevance of insight into social assistance dynamics and work–welfare/welfare–work transitions. This article reports on a study that explored the employment, unemployment and social assistance careers of a large group of people who managed to become independent from social assistance by finding a job. Using the databases of social security agencies in the Dutch city of …
Contextualising new modes of governance in activation policies
Purpose The first part of the paper aimed to interpret the changes addressed by the concepts of governance and activation in their context, in order to grasp the larger picture of the societal transformation underlying them: the starting point is the assumption that new modes of governance in activation policies are a fruitful entry point for effectively understanding deep waves of change of contemporary society. The second part aims to briefly i…
Implementing public employment policy
Purpose The purpose of the article is to analyse the interconnections between formal policy reforms and operational policies, specifically between new governance and employment policy. The main question is what happens to public employment policies when they are contracted out to non‐public (for‐profit and not‐for‐profit) agencies? Design/methodology/approach The case is the contracting out of the public employment services in Australia, Holland,…
Emergence of new modes of governance in activation policies
Purpose The paper deals with the question to what extent implementation conditions influence the profile of activation policies in the Czech Republic. In this way, it helps to clarify more general questions: how are broader objectives of these policies specified at the bottom level of implementation and why activation policies differ among countries, although guided by similar general objectives and principles. Design/methodology/approach The fin…
The government of activation policies by EU institutions
Purpose This contribution, using EU institutions' legitimacy‐seeking procedures as an analytical framework, aims to discuss the political traps of EU governance processes taking place in EU bodies in pursuit of a new institutionalisation of the Lisbon strategy. Design/methodology/approach The approach is in the form of a discursive analysis. Findings The discursive analysis shows the hegemony of two disciplines and approaches: economy and psychol…
New modes of governance in activation policies
Purpose This editorial aims to introduce the first of a set of two special issues on New modes of governance in activation policies. Design/methodology/approach The article explores the concept of governance, distinguishing a broad and more narrow use of the concept. Then, it argues that issues of governance should be an integral part of studies of welfare state transformations. Not in the last instance, because governance reforms do have an impa…
Re‐activating the Nordic welfare states
Purpose To clarify the core characteristics of Nordic activation policies in the context of typologies of European activation governance. Design/methodology/approach The paper analyses activation governance in the light of the basic values and beliefs behind the formation of the Nordic social protection systems in the mid‐20th century. Recent model‐building efforts see the Nordic countries as being close to a “universalistic” and egalitarian type…
Changing modes of governance in activation policies in France and The Netherlands
Purpose To explore and explain differences in reform of activation policies, comparing the shifts in governance in France and The Netherlands from the 1990s onwards. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on in‐depth case studies of the reform process in activation policies, using documentary sources and interviews with several stake‐holders. The theoretical scope is the debate on institutional change, path‐dependency and convergence. Fin…
Individualised service provision in an era of activation and new governance
Purpose This article aims to discuss the individualisation trend in the provision of social services, focusing on activation services specifically. Design/methodology/approach The individualisation trend in the provision of activation services is analysed against the background of public sector as well as social sector as well as social policy reforms: the introduction of new modes of governance and the rise of the active welfare state respective…
The “double dynamics” of activation
Purpose This paper aims to explore activation policy as a condensate for new forms of governance in respect of welfare institutions and in relation to welfare subjects. It asks how far apparently similar concepts – contractualisation, individuation, personalisation – can be applied to the governance of institutions and the governance of persons. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on a model of different governance regimes to trace differ…
Governing the activation of older workers in the European Union
Purpose This paper seeks to evaluate the EU's “active ageing” agenda as a governance strategy for the activation of older workers, and its impact on the regulation both of those who make, and those who are the objects of, policy. This case study is used to reflect more broadly on the implications of governance strategies for the regulation of social subjects in the European Union (EU). Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a model of gover…
Political science (47 obras) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (38 obras) · Economics (36 obras) · Business (27 obras) · Corporate governance (27 obras) · Law (24 obras) · Sociology (24 obras) · Healthcare innovation and challenges (21 obras) · Welfare (18 obras) · Politics (16 obras)