Typescript (photocopy) / viii, 361 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Dept. of History, University of Adelaide, 1982

This qualitative inquiry built on a relational and dynamic epistemology, distinguishes between four psychologies of unemployment, agency-deprivation, social perception, self-perception and finally dialectical. Within a dialectical psychology of unemployment a dialogical analysis is developed which takes the locus of intervention in unemployment as the interaction between unemployed people, those that work with them and the social knowledge that surrounds the phenomenon. The inquiry uses a longitudinal participatory action approach with two training and guidance centres in Central Scotland, 'Strategic Delivery' and the 'Young Person's Centre' between 1999 and 2001. This involved participant observation on the New Deal and Skillseekers; training programmes, meetings and interviews with managers, unemployed clients and front-line staff. 14 young people were followed through their pre-vocational training between January 2ooo and April 2ooo and follow up interviews were carried out in February and March 2ool. The study also involved social consultancy on measuring soft skills at SD and developing a person-centred approach at the YPC, where the YPC became understood as a multi-voiced organization[Bakhtin (1986)]. The inquiry produced actions, recommendations to the organizations and interpretative findings around the use of a dialogical analysis. Three co-created 'actions' on self-assessment measures for unemployed people are described. The study recommends that two key foundational concepts in the area of unemployment 'social inclusion' and 'employability' need to be reconsidered for this cohort of young people where 42.9% remain unemployed at the end of the research. Finally in making sense of organizational change the study explores the extent to which managers within the YPC were in a dialogue with the socio-political discourse and the movement in meaning of the term 'person-centred'. The study points to the importance of organizations developing an authentic dialogue with their client group. It assesses the role that psychology is playing in the current dominance of a self-perception psychology of unemployment.

Understanding characteristics of unemployment can contribute to labour market policies. Therefore this thesis investigates gender and ethnic unemployment during the recent 2008-2010 recession and spatial autocorrelation of unemployment using multivariate analysis, decomposition techniques, and panel SAR model which is innovatively adopted to examine the mechanism of causing spatial autocorrelation.

This thesis presents an account of the roles played by social actors in the implementation of unemployment policy in the UK. Lipsky’s (1980) theory of street-level bureaucracy has been adopted, updated to the contemporary context of the managerial state (Clarke & Newman, 1997) and developed in the specific case of the Jobcentre. The analysis is based on data collected during an ethnographic investigation of one case study Jobcentre office in Central Scotland. The methods consisted of six months of direct observation, interviews with 48 members of Jobcentre staff, semi-structured interviews with 35 users and analysis of notified vacancies and guidance documents. The argument is that front-line workers re-create policy as they implement it. They do so in reaction to a series of influences, constraints and incentives. Users therefore receive a service that is a modified version of the official policy. Users do not necessarily accept the policy that they are subjected to. They do not identify with the new managerialist notion of customer service because as benefit recipients they are denied purchasing power, choice and power. Unemployment policy is not delivered uniformly or unilaterally because front-line staff are active in developing work habits that influence the outcomes of policy. Policy is accomplished by staff in practice by categorising users into client types. This is significant because staff represent the state to the citizen in their interaction. Users are also active in accomplishing policy, whether they conform with, contest, negotiate or co-produce policy. Understanding what unemployment policy actually is, and what it means to people, depends on understanding these social processes by which policy emerges in practice.