13:10 - 14:50
P3
Room: Club D
Panel Session 3
Barbara Piotrowska - The effects of banning "extremists" on selection into and job satisfaction in the civil service
Niklas Harder, Samir Khalil - What we do in the shadows: A large scale analysis of biased policing in Germany.
Rasmus Schjødt - Making sense of mandatory activation - vulnerable young people's motivation for participation in job placements in Denmark.
Elisa Wirsching - Political Power of Bureaucratic Agents: Evidence from Policing in New York City
Brian Kisida - The Effect of Charter Schools on School Segregation
Making sense of mandatory activation - vulnerable young people's motivation for participation in job placements in Denmark.
P3-02
Presented by: Rasmus Schjødt
Rasmus Schjødt
Aarhus University, Department of Political Science
Drawing on the Self-Determination Theory of motivation and a qualitative longitudinal case study of young unemployed people in Denmark, this article explores how young unemployed people make sense of mandatory activation. More specifically, I examine when and how young unemployed people internalise external demands to participate in mandatory job placements. The analysis shows that the context of Danish active labour market policies is often, but not always, conducive to successful internalisation of demands for participation in activation. Successful internalisation depends on whether young people feel that they are listened to and respected, that they are able to establish a trusting relationship with case workers and that a rationale for participation is established through dialogue with case workers. Whether successful internalisation happens or not has important implications for young people’s experience of activation as meaningful and the way it influences their wellbeing and motivation. These findings provide important guidelines for the design and implementation of welfare conditionalities. They show both the possibility and the significance of implementing interventions in a way that provides citizens with a feeling of agency and self-determination. In the absence of this, citizens may be left with feelings of anger, disempowerment and demotivation, and interventions implemented in this way may therefore have the opposite effect than intended.