Introduction: Frontline delivery of welfare-to-work in different European contexts

This themed issue contributes to European research
on the role of front-line work in the implementation of
welfare-to-work policies. A number of factors underline the
relevance of such study. First, the focus on activating and
disciplining the unemployed seen in many countries may on
the surface look similar. However, a closer look at these policies
and how they unfold in different contexts reveals many and
interesting differences. While all contain a certain level of
disciplining and coercive elements, they also to a varying degree
contain elements that focus on the upgrading of skills, building
human capital and providing other types of support in
promoting labour-market participation. In turn, these policies
contain both people processing and people changing
technologies that are used for different aspects of policy
delivery. In addition, policy developments have gradually
expanded the client group of these policies, including more
hard-to-place unemployed, thus making the client group
more heterogeneous. Finally, we have seen a strong
political belief in the positive effects of using punitive
sanctions. Research supports this belief when it comes to clients
with high employability and limited problems besides unemployment, but the knowledge-base is rather shaky when it
comes to the hard-to-place clients with substantial problems.
Using punitive sanctions or other disciplining or coercive
measures in frontline work has caused controversy
and resistance. In order to qualify our understanding of
welfare-to-work policies, we need to take a step closer to where
these policies are translated into reality for the target group.