Networks within the Multi-Organizational Field of Unemployment and Precarity: A Tale of Seven Cities in Europe

This chapter, using social network metrics, compare seven cities (Geneva, Karlstad, Lyon and Cologne, Kielce, Lisbon, Turin) against two opposite unemployment system ideal-typical poles represented by the inclusive and the close ones. These different unemployment policies have been matched against the relational shape of the unemployment field, shedding light on variety of actors and major network characteristics. A more inclusive unemployment approach is matched by a homogeneous multi-organizational field where a given organizational type prevails, with high levels of trust, mutual acknowledgement, self-management, and full control by actors themselves. On the contrary the more exclusive approach is characterized by a large and heterogeneous civil society, with high level of centralization and little mutual relationships among actors.