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AbstractThe purpose of this article is to examine social innovation in the field of youth employment. It addresses both the shortcomings of supply‐side approaches that are balanced towards issues such as employability and the impact of key demand side issues including low pay and precarity. The empirical analysis is based upon interviews with young people in employment or training with social innovations as well as interviews with senior policymakers and practitioners whose remit covers these issues. The study concludes by reflecting upon how the conduct of employability can operate as an autoimmune function.

This paper calls attention to the problematic use of the concept of social innovation which remains undefined despite its proliferation throughout academic and policy discourses. Extant research has thus far failed to capture the socio-political contentions which surround social innovation. This paper therefore draws upon the work of Thomas Kuhn and conducts a paradigmatic analysis of the field of social innovation which identifies two emerging schools: one technocratic, the other democratic. The paper identifies some of the key thinkers in each paradigm and explains how the struggle between these two paradigms reveals itself to be part of a broader conflict between neoliberalism and it opponents and concludes by arguing that future research focused upon local contextualised struggles will reveal which paradigm is in the ascendancy.

In the context of recurrent economic crises, 'alternative' models of economic organising such as social enterprise offer compelling examples of utopian imageries of a better future 'to come'. Social enterprise qua utopia implies not only that alternative ways of being and co-existence are desirable, but that there is often a disjuncture between the desirable futures such utopian imaginaries project and the extent to which they are actualised or even actualisable in practice. The UK, which has long been considered the most conducive environment for social enterprise activity, offers a fertile ground to study this tension between utopian imagination and empirical actualization. Drawing from three large-scale research projects focusing on the social economy in Scotland and the North of England, this paper explores the link between social enterprise as a political program and as lived material practices unfolding under conditions of extreme resource scarcity caused by austerity measures. Our findings reveal that whatever utopian impulse social enterprise might contain, it is constituted, in the last instance, in the movement between ideas and everyday life, i.e. the aggregate of mundane practices, routines and experiences. Attentiveness to the precariousness instigated through austerity measures, such as social budget cuts, the key contribution this paper makes is to jettison approaches that treat social enterprise as a context-independent and totalizing ideal that divorces its utopian potential from the everyday practices through which this potential is being realized.

PurposeThis article seeks to answer the question: how should we conceptualise the "gig economy"? In doing so the authors shall explore if gig economy work should be understood as a novel concept that stands alone, a concept that is a subtype, or whether it may in fact be conceptually redundant.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct a thematic analysis of interview data drawn from 27 interviews with policymakers, trade union officials, key figures within labour organisations and gig economy workers.FindingsThe authors reveal how, from the perspective of key stakeholders, the concept of the gig economy exhibits a lack of "differentiation" from the long-established concept of precarious work of which it is best understood as a subtype.Research limitations/implicationsThe empirical findings from the authors' study should be regarded as limited in terms of being situated in the specific employment context of the UK. Nevertheless, the implications of the study have a broader reach. The authors seek to provoke debate and discussion among scholars across disciplines and contexts working in the areas of precarious work and the gig economy. The authors' analysis will be of interest to scholars who are concerned with how they conceptualise "new" forms of work.Originality/valueThe analysis offers a novel intervention by revealing how key stakeholders perceive the gig economy through a prism of continuity rather than change and connect it with broader processes of precarity.

This article examines collective action and the alliances between social movement organizations engaged in the work of solidarity with disabled people within and across borders during austerity. Building upon social movement theory, specifically political opportunities (Eisinger, 1973; McAdam, 1996) and resource mobilisation (McCarthy and Zald, 1977), we focus our analysis on data from in-depth interviews with thirty-five organizations at the UK and European levels, where we examine both how solidarity is operationalized by such organizations and the everyday cooperation and alliances they build with others in a UK policy context that has been hostile to disabled people (Bambra and Smith, 2010; Garthwaite, 2014) and a European context which disabled people's solidarity organizations have sought to seize as political opportunities. Our study therefore adopts a multi-level approach by analysing the building of alliances between organizations at the local, national and transnational levels and it reveals the impact of the political context and organisational pressures which can diminish resources and generate competition, thus placing strains on solidarity between disabled people.

AbstractThe Scottish National Party (SNP) has emerged from generations on the periphery to make a substantial imprint on mainstream British politics. However, in only a matter of months, the foundations of that success have crumbled and, by the admission of its leaders, the SNP is experiencing its greatest crisis in five decades. The roots of this crisis are not well understood, since most recent research has sought to explain the SNP's post‐2014 successes. However, the article argues that these successes have always hinged upon a prior moment of politicisation in 2014 on the one hand, and annual cycles of mobilisation and demobilisation on the other. The article draws attention to the SNP's governing strategy of stabilising itself through a process of strategic depoliticisation on independence, which supplanted activist mobilisation with a politics of spectatorship. It then goes on to suggest that, for the SNP, this depended on a paradox of crisis in the British state and being a governing party of the British state.

PurposeIn this article focused upon the UK context, the authors sought to better understand how political elites shaped public debate to reinforce rather than challenge the hostile policy environment for those seeking asylum.Design/methodology/approachThe authors undertook a political claims analysis (Koopmans and Statham, 1999) focussing on a venue that has been pivotal in shaping the discourse around asylum issues in the UK, namely the print media. This work adopts a theoretical frame informed by the work of Stuart Hall to uncover the extent to which debates on asylum during the key period of the refugee emergency in Europe were shaped by political elites.FindingsThe study's findings reveal the extent to which political elites acted as "primary definers" of the "crisis" and utilised that position to cast those arriving in Europe as a threat to be managed.Originality/valueThis research offers a contemporary worked example of political claims analysis in a topical subject area that colleagues across disciplines and contexts may find informative for their own research agendas.

AbstractThe discourse of deservingness has been mobilised against certain groups in the UK society navigating UK labour markets, among them refugees and asylum seekers. These discourses, leading to the stigmatisation of the unemployed are coupled with an emphasis on the importance of individuals taking responsibility to develop their 'employability'. Little attention has been paid to scrutinise the contrast between the deservingness rhetoric and policy making with the actual conditions newcomers, and in particular refugees and asylum seekers, are confronted with when seeking employment. Our paper fills such a gap by indicating key contradictions at the heart of labour market integration in the UK. On the one hand, the emphasis on deservingness is coupled with policy discourses that construct an environment shaped by welfare and labour market chauvinism. On the other hand, the policy architecture is fundamentally flawed in a number of ways in terms of the support mechanisms necessary to ensure that newcomers can successfully integrate into the labour market.

In the context of recurrent economic crises, 'alternative' models of economic organising such as social enterprise offer compelling examples of utopian imageries of a better future 'to come'. Social enterprise qua utopia implies not only that alternative ways of being and co-existence are desirable, but that there is often a disjuncture between the desirable futures such utopian imaginaries project and the extent to which they are actualised or even actualisable in practice. The UK, which has long been considered the most conducive environment for social enterprise activity, offers a fertile ground to study this tension between utopian imagination and empirical actualization. Drawing from three large-scale research projects focusing on the social economy in Scotland and the North of England, this paper explores the link between social enterprise as a political program and as lived material practices unfolding under conditions of extreme resource scarcity caused by austerity measures. Our findings reveal that whatever utopian impulse social enterprise might contain, it is constituted, in the last instance, in the movement between ideas and everyday life, i.e. the aggregate of mundane practices, routines and experiences. Attentiveness to the precariousness instigated through austerity measures, such as social budget cuts, the key contribution this paper makes is to jettison approaches that treat social enterprise as a context-independent and totalizing ideal that divorces its utopian potential from the everyday practices through which this potential is being realized.

Against the background of crisis and cuts, citizens can express solidarity with groups in various ways. Using novel survey data this article explores the attitudes and behaviours of citizens in their expressions of solidarity with disabled people and in doing so illuminates the differences and similarities across two European contexts: Italy and the UK. The findings reveal pools of solidarity with disabled people across both countries that have on the one hand similar foundations such as the social embeddedness and social trust of citizens, while on the other hand contain some differences, such as the more direct and active nature of solidarity in Italy compared to the UK and the role of religiosity as an important determinant, particularly in Italy. Across both countries the role of 'deservingness' was key to understanding solidarity, and the study's conclusions raise questions about a solidarity embedded by a degree of paternalism and even religious piety.

Solidarity among member states, one of the European Union's (EU) fundamental values, has recently been put to the test by numerous and diverse challenges that have led to a "crisis of solidarity." In the United Kingdom, the decision in June 2016 by the electorate to vote to leave the EU revealed the British dimension of this crisis. However, little is known about the perceptions of other European citizens on this decision, even though it has contributed to shaping the present and future of the EU. In this article, using a representative survey conducted in eight European countries, including the United Kingdom, we aim to explore and contrast cross-country evidence on individual perceptions on Brexit. We then aim to establish if an association exists between the opinions on Brexit and the individual solidaristic attitudes and concrete behaviors of the survey respondents. The complex relationship between opinions on this event and expressions of solidarity at different levels (local, national, European, and beyond) will be explored using multivariate regression techniques as well as the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the survey respondents.

Solidarity among member states, one of the European Union's (EU) fundamental values, has recently been put to the test by numerous and diverse challenges that have led to a "crisis of solidarity." In the United Kingdom, the decision in June 2016 by the electorate to vote to leave the EU revealed the British dimension of this crisis. However, little is known about the perceptions of other European citizens on this decision, even though it has contributed to shaping the present and future of the EU. In this article, using a representative survey conducted in eight European countries, including the United Kingdom, we aim to explore and contrast cross-country evidence on individual perceptions on Brexit. We then aim to establish if an association exists between the opinions on Brexit and the individual solidaristic attitudes and concrete behaviors of the survey respondents. The complex relationship between opinions on this event and expressions of solidarity at different levels (local, national, European, and beyond) will be explored using multivariate regression techniques as well as the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the survey respondents.

Social security policy in liberal welfare systems have been increasingly shifting towards conditionality and models of 'welfare-to-work' (Dwyer and Wright 2014, Raffass 2017, Brady 2018). This has been enabled by policy discourses that construct poverty and unemployment as the result of 'personal failure and poor social behaviour, facilitated by expensive benefits payments that make few demands of recipients' (Wiggan 2012: 384). Unravelling the policy discourse makes it possible to understand what is framed as the problem that requires intervention (Bacchi 2000, Pantazis 2016) and the political and cultural values in which the solutions are embedded (Prior, et al. 2012). Arguably, there is a trend within this area of study to overemphasise 'the constraints imposed by discourse' (Bacchi 2000: 55), which uncritically embraces a Habermasian conceptualisation of 'the public' that too easily dismisses the emergence of other public spheres as arenas for counter-discourses to develop (Fraser, 1990). Self Reliant Groups (SRGs) represent an example of such alternative enactments.