In Chapter 8 on Germany, Katharina Zimmermann and Deborah Rice address the question of how far the one-stop-shop design of the German Jobcenters for the uninsured unemployed fosters the provision of coordinated and individualized activation services. Based on interview findings from three German cities, the authors argue that service delivery is less individualized than one might expect based on the favourable regulatory context and a strong corporatist tradition in Germany. On the inter-organizational terrain, Zimmermann and Rice identify particularly data security concerns and cameralistic financing mechanisms as barriers to service coordination between Jobcenters and external actors. At street level, individualized service provision is found to be restricted mainly to the case management system and other implicit target groups, while ‘regular’ clients receive fairly limited, standardized and purely employment-focused support.
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