In this article, we explore how the institutional category
‘unemployed’ is specified in everyday practice when implementing
an active employment policy. We illustrate the
process of categorisation as an aspect of the in situ positioning
and self-representation of the client by examining one social
worker–client talk: how the category unemployed is shaped
and ‘translated’ when the client negotiates her situation with
the social worker. Two types of category revisions are identified.
First, the employability of the client, rather than her
unemployment situation, is the issue under negotiation.
Second, the client introduces new categories that are compatible
with the demands of the employment system. She contributes
by drawing on discursive resources related to the
category of ‘active job seeker’ but does this with an own
agenda of looking for a suitable job. The analysis elucidates
the client’s contribution to institutional practice and discusses
constitutive and constituted elements of categorisation.