Active policies
Elena Zizioli e Lisa Stillo
Roma Tre University

Public sector policies that use their own timing and methods, depending on the area of intervention and in interconnected cycles (Sabatier, 2007), to constantly redefine the relationship between policy, government and citizens are defined as active. Active policies, therefore, are identified as public measures and initiatives that national and local institutions put in place to promote and support disadvantaged individuals in the fields of employment, job placement and training.
One of these areas of intervention is social policies. These initiatives, developed along with the welfare state (Ferrara, 2006) and later changed in keeping with changes in the welfare system in many countries, have shifted resources and attention toward the concept of “activation”, inviting the target groups to actively participate as part of a system of rights and duties (Colasanto, 2010).
In this regard, it is useful to refer to active labour and youth policies. Both are part of the sphere of public policy and are related to each other, in that most active employment policies represent measures to support and employ young people on the premise that they are the most fragile subjects in the global economic crisis (Sergi & Barberis, 2016). These measures are based on the active involvement of the identified target group, implemented through different tools and in various ways, and supported by different advocating actors.
To date, the European community has provided significant drive as well as the indications of the 2030 Agenda (UN, 2015) to implement and promote local and global policies aimed at achieving the established objectives. In particular, the objectives previously outlined in the Global Pact for Employment (ILO, 2009) have been reiterated in the declaration of intent of the 2030 Agenda, focusing the debate on improving policies addressing young people and employment, policies which remain clearly insufficient, and initiatives to foster employment that include:

• Guidance;
• Skills review;
• Employment scouting;
• Internships and work experience;
• Vocational training;
• Job placement.

In the RE-SERVES project, the active policies under examination are specifically aimed at the category of young NEETs and designed to support and encourage re-entry schemes through targeted training practices.

Selected references

Colasanto, M. (2010). Forza e debolezza del nuovo welfare. Sociologia del lavoro, 117(1), doi: 10.3280/SL2010-117003.

ILO (2009). Superare la crisi: Un patto globale per l’occupazione. Dichiarazione adottata dalla Conferenza internazionale del Lavoro.

https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—europe/—ro-geneva/—ilo-rome/documents/publication/wcms_151911.pdf.

ONU (2015). Trasformare il nostro mondo: l’Agenda 2030 per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile. Risoluzione adottata dall’Assemblea Generale il 25 settembre 2015. https://unric.org/it/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/11/Agenda-2030-Onu-italia.pdf.

Sabatier, P. (2007). Theories of the Policy Process (2. ed.). Routledge.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367274689.

Sergi, V., Barberis, E. (2016). Politiche attive per il mercato del lavoro nella crisi: il quadro europeo e il caso italiano. Argomenti. Rivista di economia, cultura e ricerca sociale, (5), 5-28. http://dx.doi.org/10.14276/1971-8357.530.