Governing the poor in Switzerland: Young adults dealing with ambiguous cantonal social policies

Diplôme Thèse Governing the poor in Switzerland: Young adults dealing with ambiguous cantonal social policies eng 2022-06-20 2022-08-24 author Bochsler Yann David 852145 director Bonvin Jean-Michel 28661 director Knöpfel Carlo 251 10.13097/archive-ouverte/unige:163434 urn:nbn:ch:unige-1634342 SdS 199 The present research deals with the policies directed at young adults on social assistance without vocational training (YAS) and the way their implementation is perceived by implementers as well as by YAS themselves. Drawing on collected data within cantonal administrations and providers of integration (Basel-City and Geneva) as well as interviews with YAS, the thesis analysis socio-political alignment of cantonal social policies and their moral underpinnings. In Switzerland, there is currently an ongoing strategical shift in the policy field of youth policies with a renewed emphasis on educational integration as a first and primary integration step. This policy shift has implications for the strategical scope of the cantonal administration. The renewed emphasis on ‘education first’ as a guideline dictates an approach, which follows an intertwined neo-liberal and paternalistic discourse: On the one hand, social policies are programmatically designed as investment in order to avoid a long-term labour market exclusion of the YAS. On the other hand, these policies are legitimized via narratives that construct the YAS as irresponsible and dependent-not yet ready to enter adulthood. In doing so, social policies create and reproduce structural vulnerabilities related to dominant moral values like reinforcing the work ethics of young welfare beneficiaries. Social policy Young adults Social assistance Vulnerability Work ethics Dewey 304.6/305.3/306 Dewey 618.97 195 Institut de démographie et de socioéconomie TH 14 Centre interfacultaire de gérontologie et d'études des vulnérabilités 0D6 false 1282 Centre LIVES a36e7a1e-3052-454d-85c2-527db5d991b1 Thesis Public manuscrit_thèse_Bochsler_final.pdf 1679849 application/pdf Private 2025-11-21 8fdb646e5d0e3b8534add87550677c0256cb85198a1b24f47783eed3fa81968e a95a9f01-3178-4b05-89b2-3532f5eafb91 Imprimatur Public Imprimatur_thèse_Bochsler.pdf 60195 application/pdf ba2950c9a43e91a89b770c9cb091986dbaa7e64637fe46a47f79fe37f51d795e openAccess Faculté des sciences de la société / Institut de démographie et de socioéconomie Centres et instituts / Centre interfacultaire de gérontologie et d'études des vulnérabilités

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Governing the poor in Switzerland: Young adults dealing with ambiguous cantonal social policies				2022	841	275

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Bochsler, Yann David

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