Workfare: Work’s obligation and individualization of risk

Abstract

The collapse of Keynesian welfare states has determined a change in the relationship between individuals and social risks. The risk is no longer collectively addressed but its management is left to the prudence and the skills of subjects. Unemployment is no exception. The gradual spread of workfare policies aims to replace the subsidies, which are considered harmful to the work ethic and the health of the labor market. This transition produces an ambiguous space between protection and coercion, assistance and punishment. A space that is the symptom of the neoliberal restructuring of relations and modes of production.