Job Placement Between Service Provision and Control : A Multi-Method Study on Back-to-Work Agreements

Abstract

"As street-level bureaucrats, jobcentre advisors apply the legal provisions of the Social Code II to individual cases. In doing so, they act along the institutional logics of counselling and control, which become relevant for action through the back-to-work agreement – a contract between jobcentre and jobseeker. Based on a standardised survey and qualitative interviews and group discussions in jobcentres, this article examines how jobcentre advisors reconcile the logics of service provision and control in their interaction with clients. It is shown that jobcentre advisors accentuate cooperative or directive elements of the back-to-work-agreement on a case-by-case basis. They also describe constellations in which they perceive their discretion regarding the back-to-work agreement as insufficient or in which the back-to-work agreement becomes a bureaucratic and empty exercise." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Senghaas, M. & Bernhard, S. (2021): Arbeitsvermittlung im Spannungsfeld von Dienstleistung und Kontrolle - Eine multimethodische Studie zu Eingliederungsvereinbarungen in der Grundsicherung für Arbeitsuchende. In: Sozialer Fortschritt, Vol. 70, No. 9, p. 487-507. DOI:10.3790/sfo.2021.00.0000.Q2ENXS