conference

In October 2006, ASPEN organised a conference in cooperation with the European Trade Union Institute on “Activation Policies in the EU”. The papers that were presented during this conference are available elsewhere on this site.

session

In cooperation with the International Social Security Association, ASPEN will organise a session on “Implementing and delivering activation. New institutional arenas, new roles for service providers” during the ISSA conference in Warsaw, March 5-7 2007.
For more information, please visit the ISSA site: http://www.issa.int/engl/homef.htm.

book

In February 2007, the book “Making it personal. Individualised activation services in the EU” will be published by Policy Press (editors: Rik van Berkel and Ben Valkenburg).

Contents:

• Introduction: the individualisation of activation services in context (Rik van Berkel, Ben Valkenburg);
• Individualising activation services: thrashing out an ambiguous concept (Ben Valkenburg);
• A capability approach to individualised and tailor-made activation (Jean-Michel Bonvin, Nicolas Farvaque);
• Placing the individual ‘at the forefront’: Beck and individual approaches in activation (Håkan Johansson);
• User involvement in personal social services (Ilse Julkunen, Matti Heikkilä);
• Political production of individualised subjects in the paradoxical discourse of the EU institutions (Eduardo Crespo Suárez, Amparo Serrano Pascual);
• Reforming the public sector: personalised activation services in the UK (Bruce Stafford, Karen Kellard);
• Between universal policy and individualised practice. Analysing activation policy in Finland (Elsa Keskitalo);
• Do we know where we are going? Active policies and individualisation in the Italian context (Vando Borghi);
• Individual approach in activation policy in the Czech Republic (Tomáš Sirovátka);
• Rushing towards employability-centred activation. The ‘Hartz reforms’ in Germany (Dirk Jacobi, Katrin Mohr);
• Individualised activation services in the EU (Rik van Berkel).

For more information, see the site of Policy Press: https://www.policypress.org.uk/.

special issues

In 2007, the International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy will publish two special issues on new modes of governance in activation policies.

The special issues will contain the following contributions:

• Implementing employment policy: what happens when non-public agencies take over? (Thomas Bredgaard, Flemming Larsen);
• Re-activating the Nordic welfare states: do we find a distinct universalistic model? (Håkan Johansson, Bjørn Hvinden);
• Changing modes of governance of activation policies in France and in the Netherlands. Common path or countermodel? (Nicolette van Gestel and Jean Michel Herbillon);
• Emergence of new modes of governance in activation policies: czech experiences (Tomáš Sirovátka, Pavel Horák, Markéta Horáková);
• Employed and retired: governing the activation of older works in the EU (Emma Carmel, Theodoros Papadopoulos);
• The government of activation policies by EU institutions: multi-level governance without political government? (Amparo Serrano Pascual, Eduardo Crespo Suarez);
• The ‘double dynamics’ of activation: institutions, citizens and the remaking of welfare governance (Janet Newman);
• New modes of governance in the field of welfare (Jean-Michel Bonvin, Eric Machon);
• title to be confirmed (Laura Centemeri, Ota de Leonardis).

For more information, visit the IJSSP website: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/info/journals/ijssp/ijssp.jsp.