The study analysed how the work barriers and socio‐demographic characteristics of both activated and non‐activated social assistance claimants influence their participation in activation and exposure to coercion, measured as two opposite indicators – sanctions and exemptions. The study covered 372 social assistance claimants in four municipalities during a period of 1 year. The results suggest that resource activation, which entails education and/or work practice in regular workplaces, often targets claimants who lack work motivation, whereas job activation, which aims at quick entry into the labour market, targets young claimants and claimants who lack formal skills (education and/or work experience). Swedish men older than 25 years appear to run the highest risk of facing sanctions irrespective of participation in activation. Exemptions vary more than sanctions between activated and non‐activated claimants. The results are discussed in terms of five logics operating in social work.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the practice of activation in social work with social assistance claimants in four Swedish municipalities. Since the 1990s, social policies across the OECD countries have stressed activation as society's main tool to (re-)integrate unemployed SA claimants into the labour market. Two diverging activation models, the Labour Market Attachment model (with a focus on quick job entry) and the Human Resource Development model (with a focus on claimants’ resources), constitute the analytical framework. Social workers were interviewed retrospectively about activation during one year in a random sample of 372 social assistance claimants’ cases. Findings suggest that the extent of activation varies significantly between municipalities, from 20% to 60%. There was no distinct alignment toward the Labour Market Attachment or Human Resource Development models in the municipalities’ activation. Irrespective of work- or resource-orientation in the activation programmes, participation was for the most part obligatory and the participants were facing sanctions.