Institutionalized counselling of job applicants – A study in the field of public employment service under the terms of an activating welfare state

Abstract

The paper examines the question in what way and with what possibilities and limitations reflexive forms of counselling can be realized in contexts like the public employment services that are characterized by coercion. ‘Reflexive counselling’ is a form of social action, through which subjects produce a space of counselling through face-to-face communication. This space enables reflection with the help of dialogue and the conscious reference back to earlier actions. The subject regains or maintains its capacity to act. Based on an observed counselling interview conditions and factors for practical realization of reflexivity are analyzed in the job placement process.