For many EU citizens, working across the border is the only way to make a living in the EU. The battle for cheap labour has now become a well-oiled machine, in which almost all Western European countries participate. Nevertheless, the employment situation of EU Mobile Citizens, workers of low-skilled and -paid jobs, is often substandard. Challenges are housing, health care and working conditions. In addition, due to the lack of registration in municipalities, it is impossible to have an overview of the numbers and to offer effective help. This is a problem in small to medium-sized cities, where many workers live to work in agriculture, transport, construction, meat industry and logistics. For this study, 32 interviews were conducted in eleven small to medium-sized towns (SMSTs) in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Poland, and Spain. The study uses three different perspectives: EU representatives of participating regions, municipalities, and employers. The outcomes show that most SMSTs deal with a shortage of housing, and a lack of grip on the registration process of EU citizens. Although there are some success stories, most SMSTs are not in touch with each other to share these. The paper concludes with proposals for further action-research and collaborations to impact local policies.
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The aim of this study is to investigate Dutch citizens’ care attitudes by looking at care-giving norms and citizens’ welfare state orientation and to explore to what extent these attitudes can be explained by combinations of diversity characteristics. We combined two datasets (2016 and 2018, N = 5,293) containing citizens’ opinions regarding society and conducted multivariate linear and ordered probit regression analyses. An intersectional perspective was adopted to explore the influence of combinations of diversity characteristics. Results show that citizens’ care-giving norms are relatively strong, meaning they believe persons in need of care should receive help from their families or social networks. However, citizens consider the government responsible for care as well. Men, younger people, people in good health and people of non-Western origin have stronger care-giving norms than others, and younger people assign relatively more responsibility to the family than the government. Level of education and religiosity are also associated with care attitudes. Primary diversity dimensions are more related to care attitudes than secondary, circumstantial dimensions. Some of the secondary dimensions interact with primary dimensions. These insights offer policy makers, social workers and (allied) health professionals the opportunity to align with citizens’ care attitudes, as results show that people vary to a large extent in their care-giving norms and welfare state orientation.
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In the shift towards the Big Society, it is widely proclaimed that citizen participation and citizens’ initiatives are indispensable to maintaining services that used to be run by local or regional governments. Despite the increased interest in citizens’ initiatives, research has scarcely debated what actually defines the success of such initiatives. Using focus group discussions, this study examined the meanings and norms collectively constructed by government officials and professionals regarding the success and failure of citizens’ initiatives in rural areas. Remarkably, we found that the professional perspectiveof successful citizens’ initiatives was not dominated by the achievement of actualpolicy targets or project goals, such as maintaining public services. Rather, an initiative was perceived as successful as long as citizens are continuously active and in charge. Arguably, this somewhat paternalistic professional view of successful citizens’ initiatives could be challenged by the volunteers in those initiatives.
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One of the freedoms enjoyed by European Union (EU) citizens is the freedom of movement for workers within the EU (since 2011). This includes the rights of movement and residence for workers, the right to work in another Member State and be treated on an equal footing with nationals of that Member State. EU Mobile Citizens (EUMCs) are often not treated on an equal footing. In the Netherlands, the struggle to register and house EUMCs has been continuous since the start of the enlargement of the EU with the EU-11 in 2004. For this study student-led research was used to look at registration and housing policies in three countries, Sweden, Spain, and Germany to look for good practices applicable in the Dutch context. Students interviewed a municipal worker and a business representative (employer of EUMCs) in seven selected municipalities. The findings from this exploration highlight the complexity of addressing the needs of EU Mobile Citizens within local governance structures. Across the case studies, three critical themes emerged that shaped the dynamics of registration and housing for EUMCs: the capacity of local governments, the roles of employers, and the influence of national-level policies.
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Social media play an important role in the rapidly changing dynamics of government organizations and their interaction with the public. Governments are facing changing demands at organizational level due to the exponential growth of connections, networks involved in social issues and collaboration within and across organizational boundaries (Van Berlo, 2012). Vocal citizens are increasingly expressing their opinions openly and clearly, anywhere and any time. Sometimes they even get involved in (the creation of) government policy. Social media have the capacity to strengthen and facilitate online dialogue in society.
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In a growing number of economic branches, citizens are becoming more active, as part-time producers, service providers, suppliers or even entrepreneurs. They compete with traditional companies, but often operate through new business models.
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The high prevalence and burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is largely attributable to unhealthy lifestyle factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and unhealthy food habits. Prevention of CVD, through the promotion of healthy lifestyles, appears to be a Sisyphean task for healthcare professionals, as the root causes of an unhealthy lifestyle lie largely outside their scope. Since most lifestyle choices are habitual and a response to environmental cues, rather than rational and deliberate choices, nationwide policies targeting the context in which lifestyle behaviours occur may be highly effective in the prevention of CVD. In this point-of-view article, we emphasise the need for government policies beyond those mentioned in the National Prevention Agreement in the Netherlands to effectively reduce the CVD risk, and we address the commonly raised concerns regarding ‘paternalism’.
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Self-organisation in environmental service delivery is increasingly being promoted as an alternative to centralised service delivery. This article argues that self-organised environmental service delivery must be understood in the context of legal rules, especially environmental legislation. The article’s aim is twofold: first, to understand the changing relationship between the government and citizens in self-organised service delivery, and second, to explore how self-organised environmental service delivery complies with environmental quality requirements stipulated in legislation. The empirical study focuses on wastewater management in Oosterwold, the largest Dutch urban development that experimented with self-organisation. The results show that while individual wastewater management was prioritised and implemented at scale, the applicable legal rules were not adequately considered and integrated. Consequently, the experiment led to a deterioration of water quality. The article concludes that the success or failure of self-organisation in delivering environmental services such as wastewater management critically hinges on ensuring compliance with environmental legislation.
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In ons dagelijkse leven hebben we veel met technologie te maken, vaak met interactieve, informatie-gerichte technologie: als consument doen we online boodschappen – zeker in deze pandemische tijd; als reiziger in het openbaar vervoer plannen en betalen we onze reis met interactieve technologie – nu weliswaar even wat minder; als weggebruiker navigeren we op basis van technologie; en ons energieverbruik in huis wordt ‘smart’ gemeten en geadministreerd. Als burger staan we steeds vaker middels technologie in contact met overheden. Denk aan alle online communicatie met de overheid, zo als de belastingdienst en gemeenten die middels apps, websites en de ‘Berichtenbox’ van ‘MijnOverheid’ met burgers communiceren. En er wordt over burgers en ons gedrag al heel wat data verzameld, door gemeenten, de politie, door bijvoorbeeld de zorgsector. En ook in de publieke ruimte wordt data verzameld – met smart city technologie, zoals camera’s en sensoren – met als doel om de stad veiliger, efficiënter en leefbaarder te maken. Al die ‘big data’ maakt het mogelijk om inzichten te genereren – al dan niet met kunstmatige intelligentie – en besluiten te nemen. We gebruiken technologie ook om als burger zelf actie te ondernemen. Bij de overheid kunnen we met apps melden wat er op straat verbeterd of onderhouden moet worden. Met onze buren zitten we in een WhatsApp groep of NextDoor, om bij te dragen aan de leefbaarheid en veiligheid van de buurt. We kunnen met smart home tools of citizen science kits de luchtkwaliteit meten, binnenshuis, maar ook buitenshuis. We tekenen petities, doen mee aan peilingen en enquêtes. En social networking sites (SNS) worden intensief gebruikt, voor sociale en professionele relaties, maar ook om maatschappelijk actief te zijn, voor het organiseren van het samenleven in een buurt. We weten inmiddels dat social media ook een effectief kanaal zijn om de democratie te beïnvloeden. Burgers komen dus in aanraking met veel verschillende technologieën, met verschillende doelstellingen, resultaten en bijeffecten, en waaraan mensen in allerlei functies en rollen deelnemen. Wat centraal staat in het vakgebied Civic Technology is dat de technologie in dienst staat van het burgerschap.
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This thesis is about dilemmas, discretionary space and ethics in public welfare. In my position as a lecturer of ethics in socio-legal practices I am concerned with the way in which these practices open up to an ethical development of their professionals. Thus, this thesis is a search for the most fundamental themes and issues in understanding and judging public welfare as a, perhaps, ethical socio-legal practice. In the field of public services professionals function as the intermediary between government and citizen. In their daily work public welfare professionals take care of the important societal task and goal of poverty alleviation. During the last decades, public welfare has developed into a civil right that involves many obligations on the part of the client in return. The requirement to see to it that the client fulfils these obligations has complicated the public welfare professional’s task of helping citizens in need.
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