{"title":"Territorial Configurations of School‐to‐Work Outcomes in Europe","authors":"R. Cefalo, R. Scandurra, Y. Kazepov","doi":"10.17645/pag.7441","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.7441","url":null,"abstract":"Comparative research on school-to-work transitions mainly focused on country differences, examining the variation in institutional design and its impact on shaping youth labour market outcomes. The field has been dominated by a sort of methodological nationalism assuming nation states as homogeneous objects of comparison, while the territorial variations in youth transitions among sub-national territories have been less explored, notwithstanding their potential impact on life chances. In this article, we look at the outcomes of transitions in EU regions, comparing regional configurations of school-to-work transitions and their change over time. Is it possible to identify differences among groups of regions? To what extent do these patterns change over time? In order to answer these questions, we construct and analyse a longitudinal and systematic set of indicators that combine regional aggregated outcomes of transitions from education to work and regional contextual traits at the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics level 2 for the period 2007–2019. We perform two cluster analyses to describe regional differences and trends over time. The findings provide novel insights into the characteristics and patterns of an unequal geography of youth opportunities in Europe.","PeriodicalId":51598,"journal":{"name":"Politics and Governance","volume":"11 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139439807","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Strategies for Engaging and Outreaching NEETs in Italy: Insights From Active Labour Policies","authors":"Adriano Mauro Ellena, D. Marzana, Maura Pozzi","doi":"10.17645/pag.7499","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.7499","url":null,"abstract":"Outreaching and engaging young people who are not in education, employment, or training (i.e., NEETs) represents a significant challenge for public policies. They often belong to marginalized and disadvantaged categories and find themselves isolated with low levels of trust in the future, in their capacities of finding a job, and, above all, in institutions. Much research has emphasized how insufficient and unsuitable the strategies used so far have proved to be. However, there is a lack of clear mapping in the literature of what approaches have been suggested and addressed by the different guidelines. This study explores the strategies that a specific active labour policy uses to intercept and engage vulnerable youth and NEETs. This research employed a qualitative methodology that centres on the examination of official documents of the regional plans for the guaranteed employability of workers (Garanzia di Occupabilità dei Lavoratori). To conduct the analysis, the MAXQDA software package was utilized, and a content document analysis was implemented. Three main themes emerged from the analysis: capillarity of services, digitalization, and communication, each with its respective sub-themes. These themes provide valuable insights into the current strategies employed to engage vulnerable NEET youth, as well as other demographic categories, highlighting the potential strengths and weaknesses of these policies. The study holds the potential to contribute significantly to the development of more targeted and sustainable public policies, aiming to address the challenges faced by vulnerable NEET youth in Italy.","PeriodicalId":51598,"journal":{"name":"Politics and Governance","volume":"73 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139440559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"NextGenerationEU and the European Semester: Comparing National Plans and Country‐Specific Recommendations","authors":"Mattia Guidi, M. Piccinetti, Luca Verzichelli","doi":"10.17645/pag.v11i4.7351","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v11i4.7351","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the main features of the Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs) that member states have presented to access NextGenerationEU (NGEU) funds, and it explores the relationship between NGEU and the European Semester. Relying on a dataset collected for this purpose, which coded all RRPs and all recommendations received by the member states in the years preceding NGEU, we explore quantitatively the variation in the countries’ resource allocation and reform agendas and the congruence between RRPs and the recommendations issued in the European Semester. Our analysis reveals three key findings. First, substantial variation exists across member states, reflecting the diverse economic and political contexts shaped by a decade of crises. Second, by disaggregating RRPs into the six policy pillars indicated by the Commission, we show differences in the member states’ patterns of intervention. Third, we offer insights into the extent to which member states address the Semester recommendations. The data we present is a relevant tool for understanding NGEU and generating research questions aimed at exploring its nature and its implementation in the years to come.","PeriodicalId":51598,"journal":{"name":"Politics and Governance","volume":" 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139144585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
André Sønstevold, Marianne Riddervold, Elsa Lilja Gunnarsdottir
{"title":"Public Policy Europeanisation in Response to the Covid‐19 Crisis: The Case of Job Retention Schemes","authors":"André Sønstevold, Marianne Riddervold, Elsa Lilja Gunnarsdottir","doi":"10.17645/pag.v11i4.7390","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v11i4.7390","url":null,"abstract":"To what extent and how did the Covid-19-pandemic trigger the Europeanisation of public policy in the EU member states? This article addresses this question by exploring member states’ responses to the labour market implications of the pandemic. Although the EU due to its free movement principles in effect has a common labour market, labour market policies have remained in the hands of the member states. Nonetheless, we find that they responded in a surprisingly similar manner to rising unemployment caused by lockdowns. Was this policy change linked to Europeanisation processes, and if so, in what way? We find that member states’ responses were related both to economic incentives and to contingent learning playing out in largely informal settings at the EU level. Our findings shed light on how crises may function as a critical juncture that triggers policy change, and how the EU may play a key role in such change. Our study thus also adds insights to our understanding of the mechanisms that underpin Europeanisation, in particular by shedding light on the importance of informal learning processes and the influence of the European Commission also in formally less integrated policy areas.","PeriodicalId":51598,"journal":{"name":"Politics and Governance","volume":" 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139142679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tested by the Polycrisis: Reforming or Transforming the EU?","authors":"Edoardo Bressanelli, David Natali","doi":"10.17645/pag.v11i4.7894","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v11i4.7894","url":null,"abstract":"This thematic issue addresses the question: To what extent have the latest crises—the pandemic crisis and Russia’s war in Ukraine—triggered institutional and policy change in the EU? It contributes to the literature on the impact of crises on integration and the EU political system, presenting new research based on fresh theoretical insights, empirical data, or a combination of both. Theoretically, the contributions collected in the thematic issue explore whether the crises represent a critical juncture for the EU, leading to institutional and/or policy innovations or, rather, set in motion more incremental processes of adaptation. Empirically, all articles—some of which are qualitative, while others are quantitative—are based on original or new data. The first group of contributions deals with institutional change, focusing both on formal (i.e., treaty reform) and informal (i.e., codes of conduct) institutions. A second group moves the focus to policy change, looking at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on several policy areas and the energy crisis. Overall, the key lesson is that the EU can now manage and absorb new shocks quite effectively. At the same time, however, it does not promote ambitious and coherent political models or policy paradigms. Instead, it provides room for experimentation through patchwork-like strategies where old and new instruments and settings mix.","PeriodicalId":51598,"journal":{"name":"Politics and Governance","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139145940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The National Recovery and Resilience Plans: Towards a Next Generation of Fiscal Coordination?","authors":"Matilde Ceron","doi":"10.17645/pag.v11i4.7359","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v11i4.7359","url":null,"abstract":"The Recovery and Resilience Facility reflects unprecedented solidarity through common financing paired with an innovative governance framework. Member states can access grants and loans through the formulation of National Recovery and Resilience Plans, under a set of conditions that include minimum allocation targets and addressing country-specific recommendations. The analysis evaluates whether the governance of the Recovery and Resilience Facility mitigates one of the longstanding weaknesses of the Economic and Monetary Union architecture: fiscal coordination. Assessing the prevalence of green, digital, and social priorities in the (a) National Recovery and Resilience Plans, (b) the country-specific recommendations, and (c) party manifestos through a quantitative and qualitative text analysis shows some convergence toward supranational preferences, albeit only in the green domain. I provide preliminary evidence at the stage of the formulation of the plans of the effectiveness of the Recovery and Resilience Facility fiscal policy coordination by testing whether recovery agendas in the National Recovery and Resilience Plans reflect EU or national priorities. Deviating from the limited implementation of country-specific recommendations within the European Semester, the analysis indicates the governance of the Recovery and Resilience Facility orients the National Recovery and Resilience Plans toward fostering a green recovery. Findings contribute to the assessment of how pandemic recovery instruments innovate EU fiscal governance and longstanding discussions on the ineffectiveness of fiscal coordination within the Economic and Monetary Union, informing the ongoing debate on the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact and a permanent successor to the Recovery and Resilience Facility.","PeriodicalId":51598,"journal":{"name":"Politics and Governance","volume":"3 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139147503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Antonella Rocca, Omeed Agahi, Mai Beilmann, Leonor Bettencourt, Natalia Edisherashvili, Elena Marta, Paolo Mazzocchi, Niall O'Higgins, Federica Pizzolante, Òscar Prieto-Flores, Ricardo Borges Rodrigues, Miriam Rosa, Francisco Simões
{"title":"NEETs and Youth Guarantee Registration: Examining the Link to Past Undeclared Work","authors":"Antonella Rocca, Omeed Agahi, Mai Beilmann, Leonor Bettencourt, Natalia Edisherashvili, Elena Marta, Paolo Mazzocchi, Niall O'Higgins, Federica Pizzolante, Òscar Prieto-Flores, Ricardo Borges Rodrigues, Miriam Rosa, Francisco Simões","doi":"10.17645/pag.7405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.7405","url":null,"abstract":"A myriad of factors influence young people’s vulnerability and the likelihood of becoming NEET. Moreover, the share of young NEETs in European countries is very high. Institutional and governmental initiatives aiming to promote the inclusion of young people in the labour market are of paramount importance. However, the socio-economic conditions and the level of vulnerability alongside other socio-demographic characteristics are likely to influence the extent to which young people ultimately engage with such programmes. The current study ascertains whether previous experience of informal work increases young people’s propensity to participate in programmes offered by public employment services, such as the Youth Guarantee Programme. Indeed, we hypothesise that the experience of working without a contract makes young people more aware and concerned about the risk of remaining trapped in a spiral of vulnerable jobs. To test this, we used data from a survey of 4,273 NEETs and focused on Italy, Portugal, and Spain. The study’s findings contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between past experience in the informal economy and engagement with the Youth Guarantee. Besides contributing to the literature, the study can also contribute to policy making and practitioners’ assessment of the relative efficacy of Youth Guarantee initiatives among different subgroups of young NEET and tailor the interventions accordingly. In other words, the outcomes of this study should signal to governments that greater efforts should be made to implement initiatives reaching out to young people, as well as acting to reduce the precariousness in job contracts, which negatively impacts their quality of life.","PeriodicalId":51598,"journal":{"name":"Politics and Governance","volume":"12 30","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139156248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Rumours of the Crisis of Liberal Interventionism Are Greatly Exaggerated","authors":"G. R. Olsen","doi":"10.17645/pag.7352","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.7352","url":null,"abstract":"The Western reactions to the Russian assault on Ukraine in 2022 were surprisingly united and tangible. This article argues that the intervention in the Russia–Ukraine war was a continuation of other liberal interventions that took place earlier in the current century. This article claims that there is no crisis of liberal interventionism because foreign policy decision-makers in the US agree that (liberal) interventions in foreign countries can serve the national interests of the US as well as the interests of the people in the countries affected. There is no crisis because the transatlantic partners in Europe backed the US in the interventions. Finally, there is no crisis of liberal interventionism because the domestic opposition in the US and Europe is too weak to restrain the liberal interventionist mood among Western governments. Liberal interventionism is still on the agenda.","PeriodicalId":51598,"journal":{"name":"Politics and Governance","volume":"20 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139156228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Guro Øydgard, Ann-Torill Tørrisplass, J. P. Breimo
{"title":"NEETs in Norway: A Scoping Review","authors":"Guro Øydgard, Ann-Torill Tørrisplass, J. P. Breimo","doi":"10.17645/pag.7477","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.7477","url":null,"abstract":"In contrast with the rest of Europe, Norway has one of the lowest proportions of young people who are outside education, employment, or training (NEET), yet many of the youth categorised as NEETs in the country often suffer more severe challenges than their European counterparts. This scoping review analyses state-of-the-art research on NEETs in Norway and has found that such studies can be divided into two separate strands, one focusing on NEETs as a social problem and the other on strategies for the re-education and re-employment of NEETs. Reflecting on this trend, we argue that this segmentation of social problems and individual solutions in research could be symptomatic of an underlying issue that may be mirrored in policymaking and practice.","PeriodicalId":51598,"journal":{"name":"Politics and Governance","volume":"61 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139157289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Youth Guarantee, Vulnerability, and Social Exclusion Among NEETs in Southern Europe","authors":"Niall O'Higgins, Kate Brockie","doi":"10.17645/pag.7469","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.7469","url":null,"abstract":"Young people neither in employment, education, or training (NEETs) are particularly vulnerable to social and economic exclusion. Indeed, recognition of this fact was a key motivating factor underlying the development of the Youth Guarantee. This article uses data from the EU Labour Force Survey and EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions to examine how the characteristics of the NEET population and their associated vulnerability to social exclusion vary across different sub-groups of young NEETs and how this has changed in Italy, Portugal, and Spain since 2015. The analysis focuses on the determinants of NEET status, youth vulnerability to poverty and social exclusion, and also examines the propensity of young NEETs to engage with public employment services in order to assess the extent to which young people most at risk of social exclusion are within the purview of the Youth Guarantee’s activities. The article highlights how the composition and vulnerability of young NEETs have altered between 2015 and 2021. While the risks of poverty and social exclusion of long-term unemployed NEETs have remained unchanged since 2015, the vulnerability of the most at-risk subgroup of young people, those who are NEET due to family responsibilities, has become more pronounced. Moreover, the engagement with public employment services of the most at-risk NEET sub-groups has remained persistently low. The findings suggest that greater efforts are needed to remove the obstacles to labour market re-integration faced by the most vulnerable groups within the purview of the programme and, above all, young women with family responsibilities.","PeriodicalId":51598,"journal":{"name":"Politics and Governance","volume":"8 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138944749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}