LIST OF PANELS

Active Labour Market Policies and the Governance of Social Investment Welfare State: the Youth Guarantee programs in Europe (Patrik Vesan & Paolo Graziano) Since 2013, the EU has promoted a new active social policy strategy, inspired by the experiences of some Nordic countries: the Youth Guarantee (YG). The YG aims to combat the phenomenon of young NEETS, providing to all people under 25 years old an educational, training or job offer within 4 months after finishing their studies or becoming unemployed. Given the specific target population of the YG and its focus on prevention or at least early intervention, the YG appears an interesting field of research for the analysis of social investment policies "at work". This panel focuses on the implementation of national YG programs with the aim to bridge the literature on social welfare theory, social policy administration and intergovernmental relations. In particular, we encourage contributions addressed to: a. the analysis of  governance structures and implementation arrangements of the YG, ranging from the models of interagency cooperation and service provision to street-level implementation practices; b. the analysis of the first achievements or shortcomings of the YG programs, questioning their capacity to provide adequate responses to new challenges facing the new generations. Contributions should add new insights into the tensions and problems of the "real world of the SI welfare state", looking at the specific configuration of power which are at stake in the implementation of the YG and at the operational conditions affecting social investment policies, beyond the simple rechanneling of spending priorities.

Active Labour Market Policies and the Governance of Social Investment Welfare State: the Youth Guarantee programs in Europe (Patrik Vesan & Paolo Graziano) Since the late 1990s, the Social Investment (SI) paradigm has become one of the most influential ideas in the debate on the future of European Welfare state(s).  Social investment, whilst being a rather ambiguous and catch all concept, usually refers to a distinct policy logic and set of measures addressed to "increase social inclusion and minimize the intergenerational transfer of poverty as well as to ensure that the population is well prepared for the likely employment conditions of  contemporary economies" (Jenson 2009, 27). Active labour market policies (ALMPs) are among those said to underpin the social investment perspective. According to international literature, ALMPs have multiple objectives and refer to a variety of tools ranging from tax credit and in-work incentives, placement service, job creation schemes to training programs. As Bonoli (2009) pointed out, these policy tools are consistent with at least three versions of social investment based on different principles and objectives: up skilling, removing obstacles to employment and  preventing the depletion of human capital during an unemployment spell . Since 2013, the EU has promoted a new ALMP strategy, inspired by the experiences of some Nordic countries: the Youth Guarantee (YG). The YG aims to combat the phenomenon of young NEETS, providing to all people under 25 years old an educational, training or job offer within 4 months after finishing their studies or becoming unemployed. Given the specific target population of the YG and its focus on prevention or at least early intervention, the YG represents an interesting field of research for the analysis of social investment policies "at work". The aim of this panel is to focus on the implementation of the YG in different European countries. In particular, we encourage contributions on the following themes: a. the analysis of  governance structures and implementation arrangements of the YG national programs, ranging from the models of interagency cooperation and service provision to street-level implementation practices; b. the analysis of the first achievements or shortcomings of the YG national programs, questioning their capacity to provide adequate responses to the new challenges facing the young generations. In literature, the recalibration of social policies toward the Social Investment (SI) approach has often been illustrated by looking at the shifts in the level and composition of expenditures from policies covering "old risks" to policies addressing "new social risks". Although these studies are useful to grasp the "general picture", they provide a rather simplistic depiction of SI welfare state regimes. By contrast, the analyses of the national YG programs should contribute to increasing our understanding of the operational conditions affecting the reorientation toward the social investment perspective, beyond the simple rechanneling of spending priorities. In this way, our intention is to add new insights into the tensions and problems of the "real world of the SI welfare state", looking at the implementation of a specific set of policy measures.