The Politics of Labour Market Activation: Employability, Exclusion and Active Citizenship

The article focuses on the formation of the ideal “active citizen ” in labour mar-ket policy and analyses central ideas and arguments in labour market policy from the 1990s onwards, particularly concerning dominant conceptualisations of work and the ideal working citizen. In Sweden, as well as in many other countries, labour market policies have changed rapidly during the last two dec-ades. Ever since the late 1980s and early 1990s, Swedish labour market policy has primarily been aiming at “activating ” citizens, getting them out of passive “welfare dependency ” into active “self-employment”. With the “activating ” la-bour market policies of the 1990s, work has gradually become a duty, rather than a fundamental social right. Key words: workfare, activation, labour market policy, employability, exclusio