Activation work is in many aspects an unknown phenomenon in need of further investigation. One aspect is the understanding of activation among professionals working with these issues. How do they understand the conflicting logics apparent in activation work? How do they conceive, and act in relation to, the political dimensions of active labour market policies? Considering the solid body of literature on street-level bureaucracy, these professionals are likely to take an active part in the institutionalization of activation policies. They also exercise excessive power when assessing demands in relation to unemployed persons. Since activation work is still a policy area of relative novelty, and without a solid body of knowledge, the moral and cognitive assumptions of professionals are in need of further scrutiny.
Starting from a social representation-perspective, the paper explores how professionals working with activation understands unemployment and programs aimed at increase employment. Knowledge is assumed to stem from social processes such as interaction in organizations and professional groups. Hence, knowing is contextual and created via cultural praxis. Also, the instrumental aspects of knowledge is highlighted. Knowledge is not neutral – rather it is adapted to the needs of its users. In relation to street-level bureaucracy, social representation-theory offers several important insights. One is how professionals collectively, at local levels, embody the cognitive and moral aspects of policy areas. It also concerns the interplay between institutional changes and local bodies of knowledge. Such insights can deepen the exploration of street-level interaction by offering an expanded understanding of knowledge. The works of Lipsky and sub-sequent scholars have highlighted the relative autonomy apparent in welfare bureaucracies. This calls for an understanding of how knowledge is continuously generated through interaction rather than transferred neutral via education or public policies.
The aim of the paper is two-folded. The first is to give a theoretical discussion concerning the combination of social representation-theory and street-level bureaucracy. The second is to analyse date from an ongoing research project concerning activation work. Methodologically, a mixed-method design is used. It includes a cross-sectional survey and interview data collected among officers at social assistance offices and at the National Employment Office in Sweden. The quantitative data includes associative questions which are used to visualize social representations of unemployment. The qualitative data deepen and contextualize these representations by highlighting the social milieu in which they appear. Due to the two-folded aim, the paper has two implications. The first is theoretical and concerns the benefits of incorporating social representation-theory in street-level research. The second is empirical and concerns the illumination of street-level bureaucrat’s representations of activation work. The latter can help to open the enigmatic black box of activation policies from a street-level perspective.