WORKFARE. Cartografia delle idee sulla trasformazione delle politiche attive del lavoro nello stato sociale neoliberale/WORKFARE. A Cartography of Ideas on the Transformation of Active Labour Policies in the Neoliberal Welfare State

Abstract

This article considers the social protection scheme for labour insertion – conventionally called welfare-to-work (Workfare) – from the perspective of the neoliberal transformation of the Welfare State. Through a historical approach, it confronts a widespread yet fallacious thesis: that the so-called Workfare represents an anomaly in the idealised history of the Welfare State which has guaranteed, particularly between 1945 and 1973, fair economic growth and equal social citizenship. This depiction can be substantially rethought by mapping the intense international debate on Workfare occurring mostly in the last twenty years (2000-2021). As is argued, the Welfare State has not been a paradise of social rights and equal economic growth, and Workfare is neither an exception nor an anomaly within a uniform history. Instead, workfare is a political rationality which has been strengthened by recent welfare state policies.

Keywords:

Workfare, Welfare, Active Labour, Market Policies.