Session Information
15 SES 07, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
The research paper purposes a preliminary conceptual framework shaping participatory elements of Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISE) in general and Youth Employment Projects (YEP) in particular. It draws on a theoretical framing of the usage of the notion “participation” in educational and social work spheres (Anastasiadis, Heimgartner and Sing 2011), the theory of historical institutionalism (Thelen 1999; Mahoney and Rueschenmeyer 2003), internationally comparative conceptualisations of Social Enterprises (Defourny and Nyssen 2012; Kerlin 2012) and national-level empirical data to construct this participatory emphasis model of WISE, which is then checked against empirically based case studies on four YEP in Austria.
WISE in general and YEP in particular are an important pillar of Europeans activating labour market policy. They emerged in many European countries in the 1980s, in order to improve the inclusion of poorly qualified people or persons with special needs and other societal problems into society, by providing temporary jobs with on the job training and social support. Further they intend to strengthen the regional surplus by making a contribution to balance economic dissimilarities in their regions and by selling specific services and goods that are needed on a socio-economical basis. As Social Enterprises they are acting non-profit-maximising while having an explicit aim to benefit the community (Nyssen 2006; WISE Project 2009). They are ideal-typically positioned between the for-profit market, state and community sector – a position which features a multiple stakeholder structure that opens spaces for various forms of participation.
Participation is understood in its broad sense as a) a process “the act of taking part in or being part of something” (the free dictionary 2012) and as b) a status “the state of being related to a larger whole” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary 2012). Both mirror the complex character of participation as a process embedded in multi-layer hierarchical systems.
In this paper the focus is set especially on the tension field in which WISE as intermediate organisations reside meeting public authority’s requirements, market and user’s demands. The key question is, how and if WISE are (still) able to practice participation particularly in times of economisation and increasing user’s activation in educational and social care organisations, as it is perceived currently especially in conservative and social democratic welfare regimes (Galuske 2008). WISE can be understood constitutionally as specific spaces for participation. They deliver an organisational frame in order to solve societal problems in a participatory way or rather to design the social in their typical cooperative nature. They represent participatory structures for different participatory cultures, interests and goals (Anastasiadis 2011). On the other hand the emergence and development of these participatory structures are influenced by national governmental, economic and civil society models, which are embedded in international macro-institutional processes as Rueschemeyer 2009 states.
This thesis will be theoretically specified and empirically analysed in a first step. The results will be transferred into a preliminary participatory emphasis model of WISE alongside finally drawbacks and opportunities should be discussed as experienced in selected youth employment projects in Austria.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Anastasiadis, M. (Eds.) (2013): ECO-WISE – Social Enterprises as Sustainable Actors. EHV. Anastasiadis, M. (2011): Soziale Organisationen als Partizipationsräume. In: Anastasiadis, M., Heimgartner, A., Kittl-Satran, H. and Wrentschur, M. (Eds.): Sozialpädagogisches Wirken. Wien und Berlin: Lit Verlag, p.288-303. Anastasiadis, M., Heimgartner, A. and Sing, Eva (2011): Partizipation und Soziale Arbeit. In: Mikula, R. and Kittl-Satran, H. (Eds.): Dimensionen der Erziehungs- und Bildungswissenschaft. Graz: Leykam Verlag, p.35-50. Defourny, J. and Nyssens, M. (2012): The EMES Approach of Social Enterprise in a Comparative Perspective, EMES Working Paper no 12-03, available at: http://www.emes.net/what-we-do/publications/working-papers/the-emes-approach-of-social-enterprise-in-a-comparative-perspective/ (accessed 4 June 2013). Galuske, M. (2008): Flexible Arbeit und Aktivierender Staat. Soziale Arbeit zwischen Aktivierung und Ökonomisierung. In: Knapp, G. and Pichler, H. (Eds.): Armut, Gesellschaft und Soziale Arbeit. Perspektiven gegen Armut und Soziale Ausgrenzung in Österreich, Hermagoras, Mohorjeva, p. 113-136. Kerlin, J.A. (2012): Defining Social Enterprises across different contexts: A conceptual framework based in institutional factors. In: Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 42(1), Sage, p. 84-108. Mahoney, J. and Rueschenmeyer, D. (2003): Comparative historical analysis in the social sciences. Cambridge University Press. Nyssens, M. (Ed.) (2006): Social Enterprise at the crossroads of Market, Public Policies and Civil Society, Routledge, London. Rueschemeyer, D. (2009): Usable theory. Analytic tools for social and political research. Princeton University Press. The free dictionary (2012): Participation. Online: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/participation The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2012): Participation. Online: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/participation. Thelen, K. (1999): Historical institutionalism in comparative politics. In: Annual Review of Political Science, 2, p. 369-404. WISE Project (2009): Work Integration Social Enterprises as a tool for promoting inclusion, National Cross Cutting Reports, Brussels.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.