Activation policies as change strategies. An action-research perspective

The concept of active welfare state (Hanesch 2001, Kazepov 2002, van Berkel 2003) represents an attempt to describe the recursive transformations of socio-economic phenomena and the policies that try to deal them. In particular, it depicts the changing scenario by means of these aspects (van Berkel 2003 : 1): the emergence of new risks and social problems, new ways of perceiving them, new ways of dealing with risks and social problems, and the redefinition of the social responsibilities of actors in producing and dealing with risks and social problems (fig.1). The interaction between these dimensions of change produces particular combinations that kindle very different policy models and practices. The paper try to sketch a theoretical approach, looking at the change strategies promoted and legitimated by different activation policies, particularly highlighting how the modes of construction of knowledge affect the underlying nature of activation daily practices, transversally to specific measures and governance processes. The object is to comprehend which conditions allow to promote inclusion and citizenship, and in turn making more effective local governance and welfare intervention. The main questions are: which learning processes are present as a result of the welfare system? How these processes are connected to the organisational dynamics? The attempt to answer these, is based on a classification of policies by means of the logical categories of learning (Bateson 1972) and of a combined typology of change strategies. As a conclusion the paper distinguishes three different concepts of activation, whose definition require further investigation both theoretically and in the field.