Accounting for what and to whom? Accountability tensions in collaborations addressing long-term unemployment

Hansen, Magnus Paulson, Triantafillou, Peter, Bello, Benedetta, Boon, Jan, Van Doninck, Dries, Downe, James ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0772-3183, Hopkins, Cate, Klijn, Erik Hans, Sarapuu, Kulli, Stevens, Vidar and Verhoest, Koen 2022. Accounting for what and to whom? Accountability tensions in collaborations addressing long-term unemployment. Social Policy and Administration 56 (7) , pp. 1156-1171. 10.1111/spol.12846

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Abstract

Across Europe, public employment services are experimenting with more holistic and cross-sector collaborations to tackle the wicked problem of long-term unemployment. These collaborations operate in a context characterised by tensions produced by multiple demands for accountability. Based on case studies of the accountability relations and challenges in five such collaborations in the Netherlands, Belgium (Flanders), Estonia, Scotland and Denmark, we found that: rigorous use of quantifiable measurement regimes made it difficult to attribute salience to important aspects of the progress made by the unemployed citizen; standardised accounts come with the risk of reductionist understandings of the citizen's social circumstances and resources; superficial participation by local politicians resulted in rather weak political accountability and a marked ambiguity of the role of the client as both accountee and accountholder.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics) Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	0144-5596
Funders:	European Commission
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	31 August 2022
Date of Acceptance:	7 July 2022
Last Modified:	04 May 2023 09:10
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/152244

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