Digital Public Employment Services in Action

by Didier Demazière (Editor), Ray Griffin (Editor), Janine Leschke (Editor), Magnus Paulsen Hansen (Editor)

Overview

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of the ongoing digital transformation of public employment services (PES) – the most radical remaking of the welfare state in a generation.

As PES shift from analogue to fully digitised services, this volume bridges the gap between technology, policy and frontline service provision. It provides a well-rounded analysis of the practical opportunities and challenges posed by digital welfare, reconnecting and reconciling technical possibilities and political ambitions with what is socially necessary as welfare systems undergo radical change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781447371885
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	05/20/2025
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Didier Demazière is Research Director at CNRS and at the Centre for the Sociology of Organisations, Sciences Po.

Ray Griffin is Senior Lecturer in Management and Organisation at South East Technological University.

Magnus Paulsen Hansen is Associate Professor of Political Sociology in the Department of Social Sciences and Business at Roskilde University.

Janine Leschke is Professor MSO of Comparative Labour Market Analysis in the Department of Management, Society and Communication at Copenhagen Business School.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. From Politics to Code: The Unfolding of EU Digital Aspirations Into Practice

3. Algorithmic Profiling of the Unemployed

4. The Making of an Unemployed Population

5. Open Inquiry into Disruptive Digital Services

6. Legal Considerations for Algorithm Development

7. Labour Market Data, Job Matching and Job Quality

8. Looking for a Job: What Types of Information Matter to Jobseekers?

9. Digitising Exclusion: The Challenges of Modern Unemployment and Public Employment Service Delivery

10. Co-designing Digital Services with Service Users, Caseworkers and Senior Policy Makers: the Affordance and Limitations of Expert Panels

11. Digital or Human Support for the Unemployed? Profiling Tools and Advisers at Work in the French Public Employment Services

12. Cyborg Futures of Care and Welfare: Acceptance and Resistance of Digital Public Employment Services Technologies as Competent Caregiver

13. Exploring Omni-channel Welfare Experiences in Unemployment Services

14. Profiling and Subjectification of Unemployed People: Exploring the Case of Slovenian Public Employment Services

15. Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

A ground-breaking collection on the opportunities, pitfalls and unfilled promises of digitalising public employment services. Essential reading for researchers and policy practitioners concerned about the advent of online delivery channels, the rise of algorithmic profiling systems and the implications for a key institution of social citizenship.” Michael McGann, University of Melbourne

From the Publisher