The Active Turn(s)

Abstract

The introduction argues for the relevance of looking into the moral repertoire of ALMP reforms in public debates. The chapter argues for why the study of ideas and morality is pivotal to understand (and criticize) the political implications of ALMP reforms. Hereafter, the chapter engages critically with two sets of literatures. Firstly, scholars that have tried to theorize the varieties within the active turn, and secondly, with existing conceptualisations of the role of ideas and morality in relation to political and institutional changes. The last part of the chapter outlines a non-normative, but critical, approach (Hansen 2016) which deliberately refuses to evaluate the performance or judge the normative standards of ALMP in order to map the plurality of ideas related to ALMPs, as well as how these sediment into the everyday governing of the unemployed.