A critical perspective on the reform of Dutch social security law -- Contents -- List of Abbreviations -- Preface -- 1 Introduction -- Part I Theory and Methodology -- 2 Poststructuralist and post-positivistapproaches to policy analysis -- 3 Labor obligation, justice and the foundations of social security law -- 4 A normative evaluation of social law and poststructuralist critique -- Part II The emergence of new ideas in the policy discourse -- 5 The role of rhetoric and affect in policy changes. The case of Dutch Life Course Policy -- 6 Christians, feminists, liberals, socialists, workers and employers: The emergence of an unusual discourse coalition -- 7 Equality or economic growth?Interpretive frames in emancipation policy between 1992 and 2007 -- Part III The Establishment of the Life Course Arrangement -- 8 Discourse Theory on Ideas and PolicyReform: the Case of the Life CourseArrangement -- 9 Conflicting baseline categories of thought and the demise of the life course arrangement -- Part IV Governmentality and the Construction of the New Worker -- 10 Configurations of liberal governmentality :continuities and discontinuities in classical and neoliberal discourses -- Part V Main findings,conclusion and outlook -- 11 Main findings, conclusion and outlook -- Samenvatting Een kritisch perspectief op de hervorming van het Nederlandse socialezekerheidsrechtDe casus van de levensloopregeling -- Appendix to Chapter 4 (1) List of interviewees -- Appendix to chapter 4 (2) Interview themes -- Appendix to chapters 5 and 6 Argumentation strategies -- Appendix to chapter 8 (1) Discursive shift within CDA -- Appendix to chapter 8 (2) The November 2004 agreement -- Appendix to chapter 9 Balimanifest 1 (2005) and Balimanifest 2 (2009) -- References -- Index -- Curriculum vitae.