This article studies public support for three eco-social labor market policies - working time reduction, universal basic income and job guarantee – in Finnish society. It aims to explore a broadened understanding of social citizenship under the context of sustainability transformation. In social citizenship literature, labor market participation is a crucial aspect of exercising rights and fulfilling duties, forming a central element of the "work-welfare nexus" prevalent in welfare states. However, through the lens ecological sustainability, the notion of social citizenship needs to be reconsidered.
First, the territorial and temporal boundaries established in social citizenship no longer exist, since ecological impacts do not respect the borders of states and generations.
Second, individual responsibility of living sustainably dominates in green citizenship discussions, yet what kinds of the structural changes required from the states are largely understudied.
Finally, the institutionally legislated ‘work-welfare nexus’ in social policy theory is inherently detrimental to sustainability, since the normative policy goal of employment promotion is largely defined in productivism terms and embedded in the growth-oriented capitalist economy.
Drawn on sustainable welfare and eco-social policy research, this paper first builds a theoretical framework for understanding why the examined three policies are 'eco-social' and how they relate to citizenship discussion. Then it analyzes, based on a national survey (N=1070), to what extent Finnish citizens express support for these three policies and what social-economic characteristics may predict such support. Finally, it reflects on what do these findings mean for an eco-social version of citizenship. The paper argues that to maximize public acceptance of eco-social policies from below, more research focusing on 'citizen-state relations' during the sustainability transformations is needed, especially when it comes to citizen's expectations from the states in face of the changing labor markets and the global climate.
