Client contribution in negotiations on employability – categories revised?

In this article, we explore how the institutional category‘unemployed’ is specified in everyday practice when implementingan active employment policy. We illustrate theprocess of categorisation as an aspect of the in situ positioningand self-representation of the client by examining one socialworker–client talk: how the category unemployed is shapedand ‘translated’ when the client negotiates her situation withthe social worker. Two types of category revisions are identified.First, the employability of the client, rather than herunemployment situation, is the issue under negotiation.Second, the client introduces new categories that are compatiblewith the demands of the employment system. She contributesby drawing on discursive resources related to thecategory of ‘active job seeker’ but does this with an ownagenda of looking for a suitable job. The analysis elucidatesthe client’s contribution to institutional practice and discussesconstitutive and constituted elements of categorisation