Implementation unbefristet geförderter Beschäftigung (§ 16e SGB II)

Abstract

"This article is based on a study examining the implementation of § 16e SGB II. According to this law, an employer is entitled to a wage subsidy of up to 75 % for the employment of a formerly longterm unemployed person with additional obstacles to placement. If after a two-year period of employment the employee still proves to lack any chances of unsubsidized employment, tenure is to be granted and the wage subsidy to be paid for an unlimited period of time, potentially up to the time of retirement. Our study is focused on the actors of implementation (the employment agencies for the longterm unemployed) and their solution of the action problem at hand. In this study, two mutually supplemental heuristics are applied: On the one hand the 'actor-centred institutionalism' (see Mayntz/Scharpf 1995) which combines actor focused sociological steerage research with governance research focusing on rules and institutions, and on the other hand the concept of 'assimilation' derived from ethnology. The latter is concerned with processes of interpretation of things new and to be adopted and the ways of integrating them into given structures and routines of action. By using this heuristic it can be properly explained why by some actors the law was changed and even misappropriated in crucial dimensions. This shouldn't be regarded as an expression of conscious strategic manipulation; it's on the contrary much more a process which unconsciously occurs to the actors during the process of implementation. The mentioned heuristics are interlocked with the analytic strategy of objective hermeneutics, which is particularly well suited for the reconstruction of the implicit assumptions and explanatory patterns on which the implementation strategies are based and which usually defy accessibility through direct questioning. The article focuses on the analysis of open, non-standardized interviews with actors in charge of the implementation on behalf of the employment agencies of the longterm unemployed (executive directors and divisional directors)." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Bauer, F., Franzmann, M., Fuchs, P. & Jung, M. (2010): Implementation unbefristet geförderter Beschäftigung (§ 16e SGB II). Methodische Zugänge zur Erforschung des Umsetzungshandelns in der Arbeits- und Sozialverwaltung. In: Arbeits- und industriesoziologische Studien, Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 51-71.