CENTRUM PLUS AS POLISH COUNTERPART OF NEW DEAL – BRITISH UNEMPLOYMENT REDUCTION PROGRAMME

Abstract

New Deal is a large-scale programme, introduced in the United Kingdom, aimed at reducing unemployment. It is a representative example of the dominant tendency in the area of social service referred to as the Active Social Policy (ASP). Its shape and character are being formed under the influence of globalization and growing pressure the capital puts on increasing the workforce flexibility, and on reducing – already marginalised – social functions of the state, whilst organising the reminders of that function in accordance with the neoliberal doctrine of economic rationality.
The article takes a closer, and critical, look at the Centrum Plus – Polish equivalent of the British Jobcentres Plus – in order to present the speculated and actual outcomes of adapting the British programme on the Polish turf. Moreover, the paper analyzes rationality of the actions undertaken by the Centrum Plus, focusing primarily on arranging its disposable physical space to activate the unemployed. The ethnographical method was used in the research.
The Centrum Plus, it can be argued, appears ‘macdonaldised’ since it follows the principles of: efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. The  programme itself is evolving towards yet greater rationalization, economic efficiency and systemic functionality, steadily entering the Flexible New Deal phase, where private suppliers named providers employ personal counsellors so they “haul” the unemployed to work.