Professionals of policies for fighting unemployment in France: The construction an de-construction of professionalism

Sophie Divay (1)

1 CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne

The increase in unemployment that occurred in France at the end of the seventies is one aspect that has favoured the creation of jobs specializing in the field of social welfare for the unemployed.
This paper focuses on the analysis of the professional group of advisers specializing in job seeking. The first section traces the circumstances of the emergence of such a group and explains the heterogeneity of these advisers who seem, nevertheless, to have developed a specific common expertise and the same interpretation of their professionalism. In the second part, the activity of these professionals is situated in the larger framework of unemployed policies which result from a combination of international, European and national influences. The study of recent changes to unemployment policies reveals the effects of the 'macro' on the 'micro' level. In the third section, it is explained that new measures of social welfare for the unemployed tend to challenge the moral and deontological principles of these advisers whose professional identity and professionalism are challenged. These challenges to their identities are due to the intensification of the follow-up of the unemployed and to the application of bureaucratic, monitoring and measurement techniques and logic to assess the efficiency of the tools for promoting a quick return to work.

Mots clés: Support of job seekers in France; accompaniment; the unemployed; advisers; professionalism; French unemployment policies; European Employment Strategy.; European Employment Strategy

Domaines: Sociologie

Sophie Divay. Professionals of policies for fighting unemployment in France: The construction an de-construction of professionalism. European Societies, 2008, 10 (4), pp.673-686. ⟨10.1080/14616690701871951⟩. ⟨halshs-00340003⟩