Journal Articles

Beyond individualisation: The German ‘activation toolbox’

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This article discusses recent debates on ‘activating’ labour market policies in light of German
reforms since 2003. Beckian and Giddensian theories of modernity, political economy, and the
governmentality school all argue within a common paradigm of individualisation, assuming the
‘responsibilised’ and isolated individual to be the focal point of activation policies. This
paradigm is questioned, as the exclusive focus on the individual obscures something else,
namely that ‘activation’ policies can also be seen as contributing to a dynamic of
dividualisation, i.e. of making the subject of labour power fundamentally divisible. It is
demonstrated that in the recent German reforms, dividualisation provides an organising logic
pervading the instruments of activating labour market policies and the ways in which they are
articulated in a policy programme. It is concluded that dividualisation, particularly evident in
the German case, may provide a useful frame for analysing labour market reforms in other advanced capitalist economies.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Critical Social Policy

Call Number

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Publisher

Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications., 2016

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

02610183

Classification

NONE

Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Volume 36, Issue 2, May 2016; pp. 167–186

Subject(s)

governmentality
Activation
dividualisation
subjectivity production

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

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