The aim of this research project is to focus on Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs) that have been developed in Switzerland and that aim to combat the exclusion of unemployed persons from the labour market.

The originality of WISEs lies in their capacity to attain a dual goal: (re-)placing individuals into the work market, coupled with the effective production and rendering of goods and services within a competitive economical framework. The objective of insertion (or reinsertion) pursued by these WISEs is mainly attained through the exercise of a productive activity, as well as by an individualised follow-up of vulnerable individuals; in both cases oriented towards an insertion that can be limited – or not – in time. In Switzerland, for one, there are social enterprises that aim to offer “temporary” work to their beneficiaries and serve as “bridges” towards the labour market. For another, there exist social enterprises whose objective is to provide their beneficiaries with “protected” work, which mainly consists in keeping them occupied. This is because their return on the labour market is more difficult to implement – that is, they are persons with severe disabilities.

Depending of the profile of the individuals, the entrepreneurial capacity of their actors, and the economical potentialities of the region, WISEs can develop many diverse activities, although most of them generally concentrate within the following sectors: renovation and construction of buildings, maintenance of public spaces and parks, recycling, conditioning of products, fabrication of elements for industry.

In spite of the identification of a certain number of elements that permit characterising enterprises as WISEs in Switzerland – in contrast to some other European countries – we do not find any institutional definition of what is meant by the insertion through an economical activity. The different structures that evolve in this field have a tendency to auto-label themselves, which makes it difficult to classify them.

As only a few studies have analysed theses types of structures in Switzerland, our research aims at addressing two issues. The first objective is to verify whether WISEs favour or do not favour the socio-professional insertion of the persons they receive, by maintaining or developing their “competencies”, or whether, on the contrary, they generate an adverse effect on their beneficiaries, such as a lasting process of disaffiliation. The second objective is to gain an understanding of how the social logic in play, within the mechanisms that produce exclusion, actually influences individual logics. In other words, we are interested in understanding how the discourses on insertion and exclusion can influence the practices of WISEs and if they can also have an impact on the way in which the beneficiaries see themselves. Inversely, we wonder if the conceptions and practices of insertion put in place by WISEs replicate (or not) the insertion policies, and if they contribute to the development of a new form of social work.

In order to satisfy our two objectives, we chose to analyse six work integration social enterprises in the French-speaking part of Switzerland: two in the canton of Geneva (Pro Enterprise and L’Orangerie); and others in the cantons of Vaud (Polyval), Jura (Caritas), Neuchâtel (La Joliette), and Wallis (La Thune). Among these social enterprises, two (Pro and Polyval) offer “protected” jobs to their beneficiaries and accept them into the program only if they qualify for the invalidity benefit system, whereas the other companies provide their beneficiaries with a “temporary” job and can thus admit persons who are subject to different regimes: some are under the regime of municipal or cantonal social welfare, others are under the federal regime of unemployment, and a few of them can also even be under the regime of invalidity benefit system.

These six social enterprises are of variable size, as some make up fewer than 50 people (beneficiaries and staff included), as in La Joliette, L’Orangerie, and La Thune. Some others account for between 100 and 200 persons, like Caritas or Pro Enterprise, while others, like Polyval, comprise over 400 individuals.

The analysis of these different structures is based on a certain amount of data that comes not only from the federal and cantonal legislative texts on which WISEs base their activity but also from the documents produced by these. Moreover, twenty interviews were conducted with the directors and some of the “supervisors” (staff in charge of supervising and helping the beneficiaries) in these social enterprises, coupled to thirty-four “biographies” (“récits de vie”) of the beneficiaries themselves. Based on the methodology of the “biographies,” this research focuses particularly on the actors’ point of view. The biographies of the beneficiaries state what the people tell of their existence or experience. These biographies emphasize on the exclusion of the labour market and the possibilities of (re)insertion. Identifying the discourses that the beneficiaries hold for themselves (identity, values, aspirations), and their views on the social and institutional norms, their expectations towards others, and their personal and professional projects, enabled us to understand the influence of the social world and the social logics at play in the production of these discourses. The biographies also revealed their part creativity in fighting the social forces that tend to capture them.

The analysis of our empirical data reveals first that WISEs, as much as they belong to the economical field by the demand of productivity and to the social field by the accompaniment they provide to the beneficiaries, have a tendency to put an emphasis on certain specificities that are more relevant to one field than the other. Based on their finance source, their practices, and their objectives, the six WISEs that we studied can actually be placed on a range from “managerial” to “humanist.” We noticed that the structures more oriented towards the pole of human or social work have a discourse that is more stigmatising towards beneficiaries than the WISEs oriented towards the economic pole. The WISEs more oriented towards the human or social work pole consider beneficiaries first and foremost under the angle of their “problems,” fragilities, and deficiencies, whereas WISES more geared to the economic pole consider them principally as ordinary workers that have competencies and are potentially attractive occupationally. However, despite this difference in “treatment,” our analysis revealed that the beneficiaries all seem to be affected in the same way during their stay at a WISE.

We observed that the main objective of the WISEs – inserting or reinserting people on a professional level by maintaining or increasing their competencies – is mostly not accomplished. The supervisors essentially work on the beneficiaries’ social, personal, and para-professional competencies (reacquiring a rhythm, accepting obligations, dealing with a productive work, etc.), because, according to them (the supervisors), these competencies are supposed to be a support to the development of their professional ones. In fact, taking into account the economic context and the market “crisis,” our research raises one issue: the “supervisors” cannot accomplish the aim set by law of (re)inserting their beneficiaries occupationally. And, therefore, although work is given as an objective to achieve, the “supervisors” give it another function: they use it as a mean of accompaniment to avoid or limit the disaffiliation of people they welcome. Thus, although they are part of an ensemble of structures that tend to maintain people in a process of exclusion by putting them outside of the “working/non-working” axis, the WISEs simultaneously contribute to the maintaining of social solidarity. In using the productive activity to develop the social, personal, and para-professional competencies of their beneficiaries and by encouraging some thinking about their past experiences and their life in general, WISEs offer the beneficiaries a unique possibility to build up positive relations with themselves. This occurs mainly through the feeling of usefulness and recognition that they get from this particular activity. Actually, insofar as the individuals have developed a positive relation with themselves, in which work is essential and represents what a meaningful life is, WISEs – although they are not considered by the beneficiaries as ordinary enterprises and the beneficiaries on their part do not consider themselves as ordinary workers – are in a way the ultimate place where they can still find social recognition that they may not have had access anymore to due to their exclusion from the labour market.

Zusätzliche Informationen zum Projekt

Die Angebote der Einrichtungen zur sozialen Eingliederung oder Wiedereingliederung von Arbeitslosen stellen sich als wirksames Instrument im Kampf gegen deren gesellschaftliche Ausgrenzung dar. Hier soll geprüft werden, ob und inwiefern das Handeln dieser Einrichtungen die erwartete Wirkung hat oder auch kontraproduktiv sein kann.

Hintergrund
Die soziale Integration mittels Berufstätigkeit ist wenig erforscht. Das Interventionsangebot sozialer Einrichtungen und ihre Auswirkungen werfen die Frage nach dem Sinn der Erwerbsarbeit auf. In unserer Gesellschaft hat die Arbeit eine wichtige integrative Funktion und bildet das Fundament für die persönliche und soziale Identität des Einzelnen. Der Verlust der Erwerbsarbeit kann zur Ausgrenzung mit allen Folgen führen Prekarisierung, Gesundheitsschäden, Verlust von sozialen Beziehungen und Identitätsschwierigkeiten. Kann die Berufstätigkeit in einem geschützten Rahmen die schädlichen Folgen des Erwerbsarbeitsverlustes kompensieren?

Ziel und Vorgehen
Erstens ist zu ermitteln, ob und inwiefern die Massnahmen sozialer Institutionen die Kompetenzen Erwerbsarbeitsloser wie erwartet bewahren oder fördern. Umgekehrt muss herausgefunden werden, ob die Massnahmen auch unerwartete Auswirkungen haben, die zu Ausgrenzungssituationen führen. Wir wollen diese Problematik im Zusammenhang mit der Frage der Identität und den Erfahrungen der Betroffenen untersuchen. Zweitens soll geprüft werden, inwiefern die Praxis mit der beabsichtigten Integrationspolitik dieser Einrichtungen übereinstimmt. Das erste Forschungsziel wird durch die Auswertung offener Interviews mit den Begünstigten, das zweite durch Gespräche mit den Leiter/innen der sozialen Einrichtungen und durch die Prüfung einschlägiger Gesetzestexte erreicht.

Bedeutung
Dieses Projekt soll aufzeigen, wie sich die verschiedenen Massnahmen zur wirtschaftlichen Integration, die Eindrücke der Betroffenen, ihr Identitätsbewusstsein und ihre Kompetenzen auf den Integrationsprozess auswirken. Auf Grundlage dieser Erkenntnisse können die Verantwortlichen und Leiter/innen der betreffenden Einrichtungen die Leistungen verbessern. Ausserdem können sie besser eruieren, welchen Einfluss eine spezifische Integrationspolitik und die entsprechenden Massnahmen auf die Begünstigten haben.

Proposal no. 405140-69231

Bewilligtes Projekt CHF 281'850.-

Projektdauer 01.11.2003-30.04.2006

Claude de Jonckheere
Professeur
Haute école de travail social - Institut d'études sociales
Centre de recherche sociale
28, rue Prévost-Martin
CP 265
1211 Genève 4
Tel: 022 388 94 58
Fax 022 388 94 99
claude.dejonckheere@hesge.ch

Publikationen

Claude de Jonckheere, Sylvie Mezzena, Camille Molnarfi
Les entreprises sociales d'insertion par l'économique
des politiques, des pratiques, des personnes et des paradoxes
ISBN 978-2-88224-079-8, 148 x 225 mm, 254 p., CHF 42.00

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