In this SIWG session, Gianluca Busilacchi presents his work on European minimum income schemes, while William Sørensen presents his research on the social construction of domestic violence against men.
European Minimum Income Schemes in the Age of Activation: Towards a Policy Convergence?
Speaker: Gianluca Busilacchi (Visiting Fellow, EUI)
In the last year, there has been a renewed interest from the European Union (EU) for the role and governance of minimum income schemes (MISs) in member States, to face the economic and social consequences of the pandemic. Through a series of Recommendations, the EU has expressed its view in deciding to reinforce the Social Pillar, strengthening the governance and effectiveness of the European system of safety nets. In particular, the goal of these acts is to make the system of MISs more adequate to face the economic and social consequences of the pandemic and identify MISs as a crucial tool in achieving the strategic goal of "reducing the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million by 2030". This initiative is of particular interest for two reasons. First, the UE has not been actively engaged in the governance of the MIS for over 20 years (since Recommendation 92/441/EEC); second, for the same period of time the EU strategy on the Welfare State has been based on active policies rather than passive income maintenance policies. It is therefore interesting to deepen the reasons for this renewed interest on the one hand and to verify whether it also implies a change in the policy direction, on the other hand. This paper analyses the evolution of European MISs over time to understand whether the 'dominant' political and cultural paradigm of the European Welfare State towards activation has changed paradigmatically, or only to a small extent the nature of MIS and whether this change has affected in similar or different ways the European Welfare States. There is indeed the risk of short-circuit when a measure intended to guarantee a universal basic social right is conditioned and only oriented to labour market participation.
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The Social Construction of Domestic Violence Against Men: A Danish Case Study
Speaker: William Sørensen (PhD Researcher, EUI)
Since 2010 male victimisation of domestic violence has been a political priority in Danish policy, but only limited knowledge on the extent and form of the issue exists. Drawing on interviews (n=8) with practitioners who work with domestic violence this study is designed to investigate the social constructions of "male victims" and "domestic violence against men" in contemporary Danish social work practice. The ultimate aim is to analytically link the constructions made by the professionals to the bureaucratic interest in male victimisation. Three main findings from the interview material are presented: I) Male victims of partner violence is constructed as subject to a "taboo", a construction that contests the existing official statistic’s validity with the effect of enlarging the potential number of male victims. II) "Psychological violence" is constructed by the practitioners as the most common type of violence against men, but is conceptualised elusively, making it difficult to delimit psychological violence from non-violence. III) Similar to Johnson's (2008) distinction between the less severe "Situational Partner Violence" and the more severe "Intimate Terrorism", two types of partner violence are constructed by the practitioners, but they are not addressed as two distinct phenomena. The article ends with reflections on how the social workers' constructions of the issue can be seen as both supported by and supporting political efforts to include male victims into a practice predominantly focusing on female victimisation.
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