The role of civil society organizations in the field of unemployment: For or by the unemployed?

Abstract

This chapter critically discusses the capacity of civil society organizations to keep unemployed people engaged with their social environments through a range of activities. Contrary to normative assumptions of civil society, the data presented in the chapter reveal a civil society made of professionalized organizations treating the unemployed as clients rather than as members or constituencies. The chapter is based on data collected through an organizational survey across seven European cities: Cologne, Geneva, Karlstad, Kielce, Lisbon, Lyon, and Turin as part of a larger research on youth unemployment funded by the European Union.