Cross-sectoral collaboration in a restructured labour market policy landscape – a comparative study of three municipalities
Author(s): Mattias Bengtsson
Thursday 15 | 13:40-14:00
Room: TP41
Session: Nordic welfare states
In recent decades, the restructuring of welfare states in accordance with market liberal ideas has increased demands for structural labour market reforms, marketization, and privatization. An example of this is the full-scale marketization of employment services in the current transformation of Swedish labour market policies, as organisations governed in accordance with market principles and competition are expected to increase efficiency, quality, and flexibility of services. Following a policy proposal in the ‘January Agreement’ of 2019, profit-making actors have become the sole responsible for providing matching ordinary labour market services while the role of the Swedish Public Employment Service (PES) has narrowed. The PES is transformed into a ‘purchaser organization’, focusing on exercising authority through control of jobseekers and private service providers, and being responsible for strategic collaboration with municipalities and private providers. Furthermore, municipal labour market units are not allowed to provide ordinary employment measures on behalf of the PES. Instead, the new role for the municipalities is mainly as actors in cross-sectoral collaboration with the PES and other actors.
In this article, the aim is to analyze transformations of Swedish labour market policies in an emerging ‘welfare regime’ by focusing on new forms of cross-sectoral collaboration in the wake of a recent, extensive labour market policy reform. We do this by studying municipal labour market units’ understanding of the challenges emerging in the new labour market policy landscape, their perceived need for cross-sectoral collaboration, and experiences of concrete collaborative practices.
The empirical data consists of qualitative interviews with representatives from municipal labour market units in three municipalities in West Sweden. The study has a comparative approach as there are differences in municipalities' conditions depending on business structure, population, geographical location, etc. Given these differences, the range of private providers and measures offered, as well as the local presence of the PES, can vary between municipalities, which particularly affects the conditions for supporting vulnerable individuals with a weak attachment to the labour market.
By focusing on shifting roles and responsibilities between state authorities, municipalities, and private actors in an emerging welfare regime, the article contributes to sociological analyses on welfare state restructuring. Also, previous research provides limited insight into the municipal labour market units role and experiences of cross-sectoral collaboration in the new labour market policy landscape. In this way, the article contributes to filling an important knowledge gap.