Beschreibung

"In line with other studies on the frontline delivery of activation policies, the findings presented in my article stress the multifaceted nature of the frontline delivery of activation policies that encompasses enabling as well as disciplinary features. Frontline workers in jobcentres use their discretionary leeway to decide who should be treated routinely, who deserves a harsher treatment, and who is entitled to a more supportive or enabling treatment. These judgments about ‘worthy’ and ‘unworthy’ clients occur in the interplay between the current normative order and the situation presented to the frontline worker by the individual client. Some criteria applied by the public when judging the extent to which certain individuals or groups can be judged as deserving also provide cues for street-level judgements about what an individual client deserves. In addition, frontline workers use cues that are peculiar to the face-to-face nature of frontline work and judge a client’s deservingness on the basis of generalised expectations about typical clients." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en))