Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-5r2nc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-11T12:56:09.855Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Vulnerability of the ‘Entrepreneurial Self’: Analysing the Interplay between Labour Markets and Social Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2017

Kevin Caraher  and
Enrico Reuter
Kevin Caraher
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York E-mail: kevin.caraher@york.ac.uk
Enrico Reuter
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York E-mail: enrico.reuter@york.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Precarious forms of employment and increased subjectivation have profoundly altered the way in which wage-labour acts as an integrative force in society. At the same time and contributing to these changes, the focus of social policies has undergone a significant transformation, leading to an increased emphasis on individualised activation. Using the concept of vulnerability, the article has three objectives: First, to argue for an understanding of vulnerability that is sensitive to the importance of wage-labour; secondly, to outline how changes in labour markets due to the ongoing crisis of contemporary capitalism create vulnerability and to assess how social policies contribute as well as attempt to respond to these vulnerabilities with ambivalent outcomes; and finally to introduce an analytical approach to explore the interplay between social policy and socio-economic structures in determining the extent and nature of labour-market related vulnerability using the case of self-employment.

Keywords

Vulnerabilityprecaritysubjectivationgovernmentalityactivation
Type
Themed Section on Vulnerability and Social Justice
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , July 2017 , pp. 483 - 496
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amable, B. (2003) The Diversity of Modern Capitalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Baumberg, B. (2016) ‘The stigma of claiming benefits: a quantitative study’, Journal of Social Policy, 45, 2, 181–99.Google Scholar
Beck, U. (2009) World at Risk, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) (2015) ‘Understanding self-employment’, BIS Enterprise Analysis Research Report, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/500305/understanding-self-employment.pdf [accessed 23.05.16].Google Scholar
Bank of England (BoE) (2015) ‘Self-employment: what can we learn from recent developments?’, Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, 2015 Q1, http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/quarterlybulletin/2015/q105.pdf [accessed 19.05.16].Google Scholar
Boltanski, L. and Chiapello, E. (2006) The New Spirit of Capitalism, London: Verso.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (2001) Meditationen. Zur Kritik der scholastischen Vernunft [Meditations. On the Critique of Scholastic Reason], Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Boyer, R. (2015) Economie politique des capitalismes: Théorie de la régulation et des crises [Political Economy of Capitalisms: Theory of Regulation and Crises], Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar
Brӧckling, U. (2016) The Entrepreneurial Self: Fabricating a New Type of Subject, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Brown, K. (2012) ‘Remoralising “vulnerability”’, People, Place and Policy Online, 6, 1, 41–53.Google Scholar
Brown, K. (2014) ‘Questioning the vulnerability zeitgeist: care and control practices with “vulnerable” young people’, Social Policy and Society, 13, 3, 371–88.Google Scholar
Brown, K. (2015) Vulnerability and Young People, Care and Social Control in Policy and Practice, Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Brown, K., Ecclestone, K. and Emmel, N. (2017) ‘Review article: the many faces of vulnerability, Social Policy and Society, first published online 1 February 2017 doi:10.1017/S1474746416000610.Google Scholar
Castel, R. (1995) Les métamorphoses de la question sociale [The Metamorphoses of the Social Question], Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Castel, R. (2000) ‘The roads to disaffiliation: insecure work and vulnerable relationships’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 24, 3, 519–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castel, R. (2003) L'insécurité sociale: Qu'est-ce qu’être protégé [Social Insecurity: What Is Being Protected], Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Chambers, R. (1989) ‘Vulnerability, coping and policy’, Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Bulletin, 37, 4, 33–40.Google Scholar
Advice, Citizens (2015) Bogus Self-employment Costing Millions to Workers and Government, Citizens Advice, https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/how-citizens-advice-works/media/press-releases/bogus-self-employment-costing-millions-to-workers-and-government/ [accessed 10.07.16].Google Scholar
Crook, M. (2014) ‘The last bastion of the social democratic golden age: the welfare state without its class basis’, Political Studies Review, 12, 2, 239–47.Google Scholar
Dagdeviren, H., Donoghue, M. and Promberger, M. (2016) ‘Resilience, hardship and social conditions’, Journal of Social Policy, 45, 1, 1–20.Google Scholar
Dardot, P. and Laval, C. (2014) The New Way of the World: On Neoliberal Society, London: Verso.Google Scholar
D'Arcy, C. and Gardiner, L. (2014) ‘Just the job – or a working compromise?’, Resolution Foundation, http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Just-the-job-or-a-working-compromise-FINAL.pdf [accessed 24.05.16].Google Scholar
Dean, H. (2006) ‘Re-conceptualising welfare-to-work for people with multiple problems and needs’, Journal of Social Policy, 32, 3, 441–59.Google Scholar
Dean, H. (2012) ‘The ethical deficit of the United Kingdom's proposed universal credit: pimping the precariat?’, The Political Quarterly, 83, 2, 353–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deane, J. (2016) Self-Employment Review: An Independent Report, UK Government, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/529702/ind-16-2-self-employment-review.pdf [accessed 24.05.16].Google Scholar
Deeming, C. (2016) ‘Rethinking social policy and society’, Social Policy and Society, 15, 2, 159–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dellot, B. and Read, H. (2016) Boosting the Living Standards of the Self-employed, RSA, https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/reports/boosting-the-living-standards-of-the-self-employed [accessed 23.05.16].Google Scholar
Dwyer, P. (2004) Understanding Social Citizenship: Themes and Perspectives for Policy and Practice, Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Dwyer, P. (2016) ‘Citizenship, conduct and conditionality: sanction and support in the 21st century UK welfare state’, Social Policy Review, 28, 41–61.Google Scholar
Dwyer, P. and Wright, S. (2014) ‘Universal credit, ubiquitous conditionality and its implications for social citizenship’, Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 22, 1, 27–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmel, N. and Hughes, K. (2010) ‘“Recession, it's all the same to us son”: the longitudinal experience (1999–2010) of deprivation’, Twenty-First Century Society, 5, 2, 171–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1999) Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fineman, M. (2008) ‘The vulnerable subject: anchoring equality in the human condition’, Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, 20, 1, 1–23.Google Scholar
Fletcher, D. R. (2015) ‘Workfare – a blast from the past? Contemporary work conditionality for the unemployed in historical perspective’, Social Policy and Society, 14, 3, 329–39.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (2004) Naissance de la biopolitique [The Birth of Bio-Politics], Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Glyn, A. (2006) Capitalism Unleashed: Finance, Globalisation, and Welfare, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Greer, I. (2015) ‘Welfare reform, precarity and the re-commodification of labour’, Work, Employment and Society, http://wes.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/05/12/0950017015572578.full [accessed 13.05.15].Google Scholar
Harvey, D. (2011) The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism, London: Profile Books.Google Scholar
Holst, H. (2012) ‘Die konjunktur der flexibilität [The boom of flexibility]’, in Dörre, K., Sauer, D. and Wittke, V. (eds.), Kapitalismustheorie und Arbeit, Frankfurt/Main: Campus Verlag, 222–39.Google Scholar
Honneth, A. (1995) The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Husson, M. (2012) ‘Le néolibéralisme: Stade suprême? [Neoliberalism: Supreme State?]’, Actuel Marx, 51, 1, 86–101.Google Scholar
International Labour Organization (ILO) (2010) Vulnerable Employment and Poverty on the Rise: Interview with ILO Chief of Employment Trends Unit, ILO, http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/features/WCMS_120470/lang-en/index.htm [accessed 15.03.16].Google Scholar
Jackson, D., Firtko, A. and Edenborough, M. (2007) ‘Personal resilience as a strategy for surviving and thriving in the face of workplace adversity: a literature review’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 60, 1, 1–9.Google Scholar
Jessop, B. (2002) The Future of the Capitalist State, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Kleemann, F., Matuschek, I. and Voß, G.G. (2002) ‘Subjektivierung von Arbeit: Ein Überblick zum Stand der Diskussion [Subjectivation of labour: an overview on the state of discussion]’, in Moldaschl, M. and Voß, G. G. (eds.), Subjektivierung von Arbeit, Munich: Hampp, 57–114.Google Scholar
Kocyba, H. (2004) ‘Aktivierung [activation]’, in Bröckling, U., Krasmann, S. and Lemke, T. (eds.), Glossar der Gegenwart, Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 17–22.Google Scholar
Lallement, M. (2007) Le Travail: Une Sociologie Contemporaine [Work: a contemporary sociology], Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Lallement, M. (2011) ‘Europe and the economic crisis: forms of labour market adjustment and varieties of capitalism’, Work, Employment and Society, 25, 4, 627–41.Google Scholar
Lapavitsas, C. (2011) ‘Theorizing financialization’, Work, Employment and Society, 25, 4, 611–26.Google Scholar
Lessenich, S. (2015) ‘Mobility and control: on the dialectic of the “active society”’, in Dörre, K., Lessenich, S. and Rosa, H. (eds.), Sociology, Capitalism, Critique, London: Verso, 98–142.Google Scholar
Levitas, R. (2005) The Inclusive Society? Social Exclusion and New Labour, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Levy-Vroelent, C. (2010) ‘Housing vulnerable groups: the development of a new public action sector’, International Journal of Housing Policy, 10, 4, 443–56.Google Scholar
Littler, J. (2013) ‘Meritocracy as plutocracy: the marketing of “equality” under neoliberalism’, Neoliberal Culture, 80/81, 52–72.Google Scholar
Marr, A. (2010) ‘David Cameron: “Difficult decisions must be taken”’, BBC News [Online], 2 May, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/andrew_marr_show/8656998.stm [accessed 21.03.16].Google Scholar
Mason, R. and Watt, N. (2016) ‘Cameron: government will consult with disability charities over cuts’, The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/18/budget-disability-benefits-cut-just-a-suggestion-nicky-morgan [accessed 21.03.16].Google Scholar
Müller, H.-P. and Schmid, M. (1992) ‘Arbeitsteilung, Solidarität und Moral: Eine werkgeschichtliche und systematische Einführung in die “Arbeitsteilung” von Emile Durkheim’ [Division of labour, solidarity and moral: a historical and systematic introduction to Emile Durkheim's “Division of Labour”]’, in Durkheim, E. (ed.), Über soziale Arbeitsteilung, Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 481–521.Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2015) In It Together: Why Less Inequality Benefits All, OECD Publishing, http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/in-it-together-why-less-inequality-benefits-all/non-standard-work-job-polarisation-and-inequality_9789264235120-7-en;jsessionid=1u2gcra3p4vcu.x-oecd-live-03 [accessed 22.03.16].Google Scholar
O'Leary, D. (2014) ‘Going it alone’, Demos, http://www.demos.co.uk/files/DEMOS_GoingitAlone_web.pdf?1409503024 [accessed 15.05.16].Google Scholar
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2014) Why Has the Number of Self-employed Increased? ONS, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/self-employed-workers-in-the-uk/2014/rep-self-employed-workers-in-the-uk-2014.html [accessed 23.05.16].Google Scholar
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2016) UK Labour Market: April 2016: Estimates of Employment, Unemployment, Economic Inactivity and Other Employment Related Statistics for the UK, ONS, https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/april2016#employment [accessed 24.05.16].Google Scholar
Rademacher, C. and Ramos Lobato, P. (2008) ‘Teufelskreis oder Glücksspirale? Ungleiche Bewältigung unsicherer Beschäftigung [Vicious circle or wheel of fortune? Unequal coping with insecure jobs]’, in Eickelpasch, R., Rademacher, C. and Lobato, P. Ramos (eds.), Metamorphosen des Kapitalismus und seiner Kritik, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 118–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raffass, T. (2016) ‘Work enforcement in liberal democracies’, Journal of Social Policy, 45, 3, 417–34.Google Scholar
Rosanvallon, P. (2013) The Society of Equals, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Savage, M., Devine, F., Cunningham, N., Taylor, M., Yaojin, L., Hjellbrekke, J., Le Roux, B., Friedman, S. and Miles, A. (2013) ‘A new model of social class? Findings from the BBC's Great British Class Survey Experiment’, Sociology, 47, 2, 219–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. J. (2009) Power and the State, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Streeck, W. (2014) ‘How will capitalism end?’, New Left Review, 87, 35–64.Google Scholar
Swank, D. (2005) Global Capital, Political Institutions and Policy Change in Developed Welfare States, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P., Gumy, J. M. and Otto, A. (2015) ‘Can “new welfare” address poverty through more and better Jobs?’, Journal of Social Policy, 44, 1, 83–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voswinkel, S. (2012) ‘Arbeit und Subjektivität [Work and subjectivity]’, in Dörre, K., Sauer, D. and Wittke, V. (eds.), Kapitalismustheorie und Arbeit, Frankfurt/Main: Campus Verlag, 302–15.Google Scholar
Voß, G. G. and Pongratz, H. J. (1998) ‘Der Arbeitskraftunternehmer: Eine neue Grundform der Ware Arbeitskraft? [The entrepreneurial employee: a new basic form of the commodity labour?]’, Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 50, 1, 131–58.Google Scholar
Wacquant, L. (2009) Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity, London: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Walby, S. (2013) ‘Finance versus democracy? Theorizing finance in society’, Work, Employment and Society, 27, 3, 489–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar