Marienthal.reversed – A study on the transition out of long-term unemployment

Marienthal.reversed accompanies the world’s first job guarantee project, initiated and implemented by the AMS (Public Employment Service) for Lower Austria. The Modellprojekt Arbeitsplatzgarantie Marienthal (MAGMA, Marienthal job guarantee pilot project) is based on a three-year mixed-methods longitudinal approach and is targeted at the long-term unemployed in Gramatneusiedl, Austria. This project is intended as accompanying research to the social sciences study Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal (the unemployed of Marienthal) by Marie Jahoda, Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Hans Zeisel, based on a reversed research interest. It investigates the transition out of long-term unemployment into subsidised employment, as well as the effects of a job guarantee on the unemployed. Over the course of the project, the researchers carry out quantitative and qualitative surveys investigating the experiences and subjective perceptions of all project participants at regular intervals. The project aims to evaluate the job guarantee measure using a mixed-methods approach and to provide informative insights into how the measure is perceived, the transition out of long-term unemployment, the social participation of those affected as well as the changes to their realities of life. How do the persons surveyed experience the transition out of long-term unemployment, the period of unemployment and participation in the MAGMA project? How does the introduction of a job guarantee change the affected persons’ life satisfaction and self-efficacy, their health and health-related behaviour, their financial situation and the organisation of everyday life? Does the project lead to changes in social relations? Do the persons participating in the project experience respect and recognition, social inclusion or exclusion? The project team aims to investigate these issues in this accompanying study, designed as a research project that involves students enrolled on the master’s programme in Sociology.