Beyond the Workfare State: Labour Markets, Equality and Human Rights

Citation

Conley, H. (2009), "Beyond the Workfare State: Labour Markets, Equality and Human Rights", Equal Opportunities International, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 280-281. https://doi.org/10.1108/02610150910947816

This useful edited collection reports on research stemming from the SEQUAL Development Partnership, a UK programme which examined “community based approaches to accessing employment for people disadvantaged and excluded by reason of gender, class ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, language, geography, citizenship status and youth and older age” (p. 1). In this respect the book offers a welcome and much needed analysis across a wide range of equality issues, some of which, such as language, geography, citizenship status, are rarely considered. The main arguments of the book are critical of government “work first” and “employability” approaches to people who have traditionally suffered labour market exclusion and disadvantage. The book identifies where successful community‐based initiatives have been hampered by the national policy framework and adds to the growing body of research critical of the contradictions evident in the New Labour modernization programme. The main contradiction identified in this book is that between the compulsion underpinning the welfare to work policies and the empowerment espoused by the employability discourse.

The book is divided into two sections: following an introduction, section one contains eight chapters, each focussing on one of the project case studies. The second section and the introduction contain the majority of the conceptual and theoretical analysis across the project. To take the case study chapters first, many of the chapters add new and interesting dimensions to the equality debates. For example, chapter three by Watson, Williams and Wickham uses SEQUAL data on Deaf and disabled people to provide a useful critique of the government reforms on incapacity benefit and the New Deal for Disabled People initiative. The chapter makes good use of the experiences of Deaf and disabled people to show the weaknesses and implications of government policy. Similarly chapter five by Piette and McCarthy offers interesting data on geographical (largely rural) exclusion in North Wales. The authors raise the interesting problem of exclusion in bi‐lingual communities, particularly for migrants. The chapter is particularly useful for highlighting how geographical exclusion is linked to class and poverty. In the same way chapter eight by Pamela Clayton offers an effective addition to debates on intersectionality by examining how class, age and gender interact to produce disadvantage for older people in the urban setting of Glasgow. The final case study chapter by Azar Sheibani offers a powerful critique of business case arguments for equality and diversity by examining the concept of employability in relation to refugees. Sheibani argues that the concept of employability when applied to refugees “might secure employment for some refugees but will not promote full and fair integration” (p. 128).

The introduction and second part of the book contains the overarching analysis and conceptual framework. The first chapter in this section, chapter ten, by Carpenter with Speeden provides an historical critical analysis of social and welfare policy in relation to worklessness from which they demonstrate how New Labour claims to modernization have in fact been rooted in liberal traditions. They argue that the chapter “… acknowledges the progress made from the point of view of the economically disadvantaged and discriminated‐against communities but also identifies a plateau in terms of policy impact on unemployment and “worklessness” from the Labour government's third term after 2005” (p. 133). In this respect the chapter offers a convincing addition to the growing critical analyses of the New Labour's modernization project. What is perhaps less convincing are the authors” claims to do this through a critical realist approach. The authors argue that their approach is less pessimistic than materialist or post‐structural analyses. However, as is often the case in relation to critical realism, the reader is left wondering what the critical realist approach is, how it has been specifically applied in this case and why it is substantially different from other radical analyses.

The final chapter of the book by Carpenter, Speeden with Griffin and Walters provides the prescription to an alternative approach, which they see as “… emerging out of the struggles of social movements from below” (p. 159). The chapter continues the challenge to social policy based on human capital and “work‐first” principles and argues for two radical approaches which they term “egalitarian structuralist” and “egalitarian utopian” (p. 161). Whilst these visions are uplifting, they seem, in the current economic climate, very dim possibilities. Meanwhile, back in the “real” world, the authors very convincingly link race and gender discrimination unequivocally to class. In addition they argue for a human rights approach to equality. This latter argument would have benefited by some critical analysis of the concept of human rights as a way of achieving equality of outcome, especially for women (see Elias, 2007).

On the whole the book offers a stimulating and useful addition to equality and diversity debates. Some of the case study chapters, and this may be a problem with the structure of the book, do not engage to any great extent with existing research in the area and sometimes seem in danger of “re‐inventing the wheel”. The focus of the book is social policy and this is reflected in the literature in which it is set. However equality and diversity are studied in a number of disciplines and a slightly wider interdisciplinary focus would have helped some of the authors, and the editors, to develop their arguments.