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Training and Enterprise Councils: Schumpeterian Workfare State, or What?

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  • J Peck
  • M Jones

Abstract

In the paper we critically examine Jessop's regulationist theorisation of state restructuring, focusing on his claim that a transition is underway from the Keynesian welfare state of the Fordist era to a new, post-Fordist Schumpeterian workfare state (SWS). According to Jessop, the strategic orientations of the SWS are for the promotion of innovation and structural competitiveness in economic policy (hence Schumpeter), and for the enhancement of flexibility and competitiveness in social policy (hence workfare). We seek to interrogate Jessop's claims by way of a case study of ‘leading edge’ state restructuring in the United Kingdom, the Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) initiative. The structure and discourses of TECs strongly echo Jessop's rendering of the neoliberal SWS: they are locally based, privatised and business-led bodies, contracted to central government to provide market-relevant training and enterprise services, to operate workfare-style programmes for the unemployed, and to restore through supply-side measures the dynamism and competitiveness of local economies. At the same time, however, as acting as potential exemplars of SWS institutional forms, TECs may also be illuminating incipient contradictions in (one of) its neoliberal variants. The TECs illustrate some of the problems associated with the geographical reconstitution of the state, which Jessop terms ‘hollowing out’, while also raising questions about the sustainability of the neoliberal SWS. Though the TECs may be pioneering new (local) ways of disciplining the unemployed, they are seen to be singularly ineffective in reproducing a flexible labour force. The TEC experience might be summarised as: workfare, yes; Schumpeter, no.

Suggested Citation

  • J Peck & M Jones, 1995. "Training and Enterprise Councils: Schumpeterian Workfare State, or What?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 27(9), pages 1361-1396, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:27:y:1995:i:9:p:1361-1396
    DOI: 10.1068/a271361
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. King, Desmond, 1995. "Actively Seeking Work?," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226436227, September.
    2. Robertson, David Brian, 1986. "Mrs. Thatcher's Employment Prescription: An Active Neo-Liberal Labor Market Policy," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 275-296, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jane Tooke, 2001. "Reforming Adult Education: Struggles over the British State Strategy of Learndirect," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(9), pages 1665-1679, September.
    2. Rhys Jones & Mark Goodwin & Martin Jones & Glenn Simpson, 2004. "Devolution, State Personnel, and the Production of New Territories of Governance in the United Kingdom," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(1), pages 89-109, January.
    3. Kevin G Ward, 2000. "State Licence, Local Settlements, and the Politics of ‘Branding’ the City," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 18(3), pages 285-300, June.
    4. R Huggins, 1997. "Training and Enterprise Councils as Facilitators of a Networked Approach to Local Economic Development: Forms, Mechanisms, and Existing Interpretations," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 15(3), pages 273-284, September.
    5. B Jessop, 1995. "Towards a Schumpeterian Workfare Regime in Britain? Reflections on Regulation, Governance, and Welfare State," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 27(10), pages 1613-1626, October.
    6. A Patterson & P L Pinch, 1995. "‘Hollowing out’ the Local State: Compulsory Competitive Tendering and the Restructuring of British Public Sector Services," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 27(9), pages 1437-1461, September.
    7. G MacLeod, 1999. "Entrepreneurial Spaces, Hegemony, and State Strategy: The Political Shaping of Privatism in Lowland Scotland," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 31(2), pages 345-375, February.
    8. Danny MacKinnon, 2001. "Regulating Regional Spaces: State Agencies and the Production of Governance in the Scottish Highlands," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(5), pages 823-844, May.
    9. Mark Purcell & J. Christopher Brown, 2005. "Against the local trap: scale and the study of environment and development," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 5(4), pages 279-297, October.
    10. Julie MacLeavy, 2007. "The Six Dimensions of New Labour: Structures, Strategies, and Languages of Neoliberal Legitimacy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(7), pages 1715-1734, July.
    11. Andrew Beer & Rebecca Bentley & Emma Baker & Kate Mason & Shelley Mallett & Anne Kavanagh & Tony LaMontagne, 2016. "Neoliberalism, economic restructuring and policy change: Precarious housing and precarious employment in Australia," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(8), pages 1542-1558, June.
    12. M R Jones, 1997. "Spatial Selectivity of the State? The Regulationist Enigma and Local Struggles over Economic Governance," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 29(5), pages 831-864, May.
    13. Robert Huggins, 1998. "Local Business Co-operation and Training and Enterprise Councils: The Development of Inter-firm Networks," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(9), pages 813-826.
    14. J Peck, 1999. "New Labourers? Making a New Deal for the ‘Workless Class’," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 17(3), pages 345-372, June.

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