Challenging temporal structures in job centre pathways towards labour market participation

This article investigates how tensions between temporal structures influence the perceptions of Danish job centre pathways among long-term unemployed citizens and frontline professionals, as well as the challenges they face in aligning with the temporal imperatives of the job centre's institutional time. This study draws on qualitative individual interviews with 28 long-term unemployed citizens, two focus group interviews with frontline professionals and observations of four unemployed citizens’ meetings in Danish job centres. Through an expanded conceptualisation of J. David Lewis and Andrew Weigert's notion of social time structures, we establish that accepting dominant principles and demands is necessary for alignment with the institutional time of the job centre. We find that unemployed citizens’ misalignment with the job centre's institutional time can lead them to contest the progression of their pathways and dispute the priorities established in their pathways. Furthermore, we demonstrate that frontline professionals are similarly challenged in aligning with the institutional time. Our analysis reveals that temporal alignment cannot be assumed for either long-term unemployed citizens or the frontline professionals involved in delivering job centre pathways. Temporal alignments constitute a significant tension in Danish job centres and are crucial for the perception of job centre pathways held by both long-term unemployed citizens and frontline professionals.