Programme full

Friday 17 April 2015 15:15 - 16:45
PAPER SESSION 8
identities and psychic suffering amongst Portuguese workers. Through the analysis of biographic interviews to present
and former call and contact centre workers, it aims at analyzing the work experiences and life working conditions
reported by the teleoperators. It was concluded that they live in a constant state of emotional fear and psychosocial
risk as a result of the flexible, repetitive and controlled work implemented at the telecommunications assembly lines. It
creates an eminent fear and mind blockage that stops them from being ambitious in life by giving up their dreams of a
family, of fulfilling their occupational identities and achieving mental and physical harmony. In most cases, some of
these young adults remain adult children by never emancipating from their parents and from their precarious jobs.
Work, Employment and Economic Life 2
W823, HAMISH WOOD BUILDING
Foundations of the Workfare State: Reflections on the Political Transformation of the Welfare State in Britain
Deeming, C.
(University of Bristol)
The British 'welfare state' has been transformed. 'Welfare' has been replaced by a new 'workfare' regime (the 'Work
Programme') defined by tougher state regulatory practices for those receiving out-of-work benefits. US-style
mandatory community work programmes are being revived and expanded. This article, therefore, considers shifting
public attitudes to work and welfare in Britain and changing attitudes to working-age welfare and out-of-work benefits
in particular. It also
considers the extent to which recent transformations of the state may be explained by declines in traditional labourist
politics and class-based solidarity. Thus, we attempt to develop a richer understanding of changing public attitudes
towards welfare and the punitive regulatory 'workfare' practices engaged by the modern state in the liberal market
economy; reflecting on the nature of the relations between ideology, party policies, popular attitudes and their political
impact.
Long-term Care and Labour Market Performance of Welfare Recipients in Germany
Kopf, E., Hohmeyer, K.
(Institute for Employment Research)
Due to the demographic development, the demand for long-term care is increasing in the near future in many
developed countries. Furthermore in response to these demographic changes, the OECD advised member countries
to take measures to increase employment to ensure the sustainability of the welfare state. Since the welfare reforms
in Germany, welfare recipients were supposed to be ready to work and help themselves to decrease or end the
neediness of their household. However, 7% of the members of these households who receive welfare benefits are
engaged in long-term care of relatives or friends in need of assistance. Their care tasks may interfere with their job
search.
Our paper studies the relationship between care tasks of welfare recipients and their labour market performance. The
direction of this relationship is not clear: on the one hand, taking care of relatives can worsen labour market
opportunities. On the other hand, taking care of relatives can be the result of bad labour market opportunities (see
Heitmüller, 2007; Meng, 2013). To shed light on this relationship, we study the labour market performance of welfare
recipients taking care of relatives. Our analyses are based on survey data from the Panel Study Labour Market and
Social Security and on panel methods.
Financial Literacy and Welfare: Transforming Income into Living Standard
Beste, J., Bethmann, A.
(University of Mannheim)
One of the basic distinctions in the measurement of welfare is between indirect and direct approaches. A resource
based measure like income can be considered an indirect approach, as it only accounts for the means necessary to
produce welfare in a subsequent step. The standard of living approach on the other hand provides a direct way of
measuring welfare. It accounts for goods, services, and activities available to the household members and might
therefore resemble the actual living conditions more closely.
Conceptually it can be assumed that living standard is generated primarily from available income. However, in reality
similar income does not always lead to a comparable living standard. Factors like individual preferences, debts and
assets, support networks, household composition and regional differences are likely to affect the transforming.
BSA Annual Conference 2015 308
Glasgow Caledonian University