Showing papers in "Critical Social Policy in 1986"
TL;DR: In this article, social workers appeared to collude with men in seeing domestic failings as comprehensible reasons for violence towards their wives, and this rationalisation of men's violence towards wives is not simply a response located in the everyday practices of social workers; as this collection demonstrates, it underscores and determines responses of major public services such as the police, local authority housing departments etc.
Abstract: Indeed, social workers appeared to collude with men in seeing domestic failings as comprehensible reasons for violence. As Maynard concludes, this rationalisation (if not legitimisation) of men’s violence towards wives is not simply a response located in the everyday practices of social workers; as this collection demonstrates, it underscores and determines responses of major public services such as the police, local authority housing departments etc. And, as Mary Maynard rightly concludes, it is an example of the way in which patriarchal relations are reproduced and sustained. It is difficult to see how, then, in the absence of automatic referral of all wife bat-
127 citations
TL;DR: Brenton as mentioned in this paper pointed out that there has been a middle-class entrée into local authority and voluntary sector services, concurrent with an increase in support for greater professionalisation, and this affects the assumption that grass-roots feeling is the locus of support for less statutory and more localised services.
Abstract: particular side, but rather favouring the thorough overhaul of present provision, rather than its dismantling, is firmly based in data and information, which is clearly set out and instructive. Perhaps the only question which is left begging, is about where the demand for change, in the ’welfare pluralist’ mould, is coming from. That there has been a middle-class entrée into local authority and voluntary sector services, concurrent with an increase in support for greater professionalisation is evident. How this affects the assumption that grass-roots feeling is the locus of support for less statutory and more localised services, remains to be seen. It cannot be said with any certainty that the voluntary sector itself actually wants the sole responsibility for welfare and personal social services. As Brenton points out, its strongest feature to date has been its capacity for criticism and innovation, which would surely be undermined and compromised even more than at present, by total dependence upon government funding.
36 citations
TL;DR: This article argued that the traditional handling of incest reinforces patriarchal relations within the Western heterosexual nuclear family and that it forms a link in the chain legitimating the continuation of all forms of violence against women and children.
Abstract: came to light, and as feminists began to challenge both the cherished myths concerning incest and the role of the helping professions in the matter. Using a feminist perspective, this article examines incest as it is commonly perceived and traditionally handled by social workers. I argue that the traditional handling of incest reinforces patriarchal relations within the Western heterosexual nuclear family. As such, it forms a link in the chain legitimating the continuation of all forms of violence against women and children. To counteract society’s traditional response to incest, feminists must publicly expose the patriarchal dynamics underpinning incest and work for the abolition of patriarchal relationships. Incest forms part of a contium of sexual abuse, 93% of which is directed
25 citations
TL;DR: The idea that all this can be done by the state, and that it is somehow second-best or even degrading to leave it to private people, is referred to as cold charity as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: We know the immense sacrifices which people will make for the care of their own near and dear for elderly relatives, disabled children and so on, and the immense part which voluntary effort even outside the confines of the family has played in these fields. Once you give people the idea that all this can be done by the state, and that it is somehow second-best or even degrading to leave it to private people (it is sometimes referred to as ’cold charity’) then you will begin to deprive human beings of one of the essential ingredients of humanity personal moral responsibility. Margaret Thatcher, 1978(l) >
21 citations
TL;DR: The existence of racism and sexism in schools has become of increasing concern to educational policy-makers over the past two decades in the United Kingdom and has also been the subject of analysis by social scientists.
Abstract: The existence of racism and sexism in schools has become of increasing concern to educational policy-makers over the past two decades in the United Kingdom and has also been the subject of analysis by social scientists. Local Education Authorities have devised explicit policies and sets of guidelines to tackle gender and race inequalities. There are, according to Arnot 1986, some thirty LEAs with multi-cultural education policies, and about twenty with antisexist or equal opportunities for both sexes policies. Issues concerning sexist and racist practices by pupils and teachers have become national causes celebres. For example, the Manchester sexist graffiti case involving five secondary schoolboys, and the case of Ray Honeyford, former head of a Bradford middle school whose views on race precipitated a major policital controversy. Despite this, the possible connections and differences between racist and sexist views and practices in schools are only just beginning to be understood by policy-makers, social investigators and teachers. Still less is it the case that the
20 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Services, Norman Fowler, announced in a written parliamentary answer the establishment of an inquiry into NHS management, which was to be led by Roy Griffiths, managing director of Sainsbury's (subsequently to be knighted for ’services to the NHS’).
Abstract: On 3 February 1983, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Services, Norman Fowler, announced in a written parliamentary answer the establishment of an inquiry into NHS management. The inquiry was to be led by Roy Griffiths, managing director of Sainsbury’s (subsequently to be knighted for ’services to the NHS’). He was to be assisted by Michael Bett, board member for personnel at British Telecom; Jim Blyth, group finance director of United Biscuits; and Sir Brian Bailey, chairman of Television South West and of the Health Education Council, formerly chairman of South Western Regional Health Authority. Their terms of reference were to provide Fowler with
16 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the main ways in which racism operates through the social security system in Britain, in particular at the connection between entitlement to benefit and immigration control and at the failure of the system to meet specific problems faced by black claim ants.
Abstract: This article examines some of the main ways in which racism operates through the social security system in Britain, in particular at the connection between entitlement to benefit and immigration control and at the failure of the system to meet specific problems faced by black claim ants. It looks also at the implications for black people of the recent govern ment review of the social security system and the Social Security Bill before parliament at the time of writing. A final section suggests some points for consideration in the development of an anti-racist strategy for welfare benefits.
16 citations
TL;DR: The Images of Ourselves: Disabled Women Talking collection as discussed by the authors is a collection of experiences of disabled women describing their experience of caring, and the editors provide a brief introduction and conclusion.
Abstract: carers (sixteen of them women) describing their experience of caring. The editors provide a brief introduction and conclusion. Readers of the collection of experiences of disabled women, Images of Ourselves: Disabled Women Talking, also published by RKP, will be familiar with the way in which the book is put together. I have no doubt that readers of such collections who are in similar positions themselves can gain much comfort from knowing that others are in ’the same boat’ and feeling just as confused, and frustrated as themselves. However, as an academic rather than a carer, it is difficult to know what to make of this kind of collection: the individual contributions do not follow a common format and they are neither related to each other nor generally analysed by the editors. It is possible that a particularly thoughtful reader could work out their own analysis using some of the cases in this book, but I doubt if the editors had this in mind when they compiled the collection. Instead of analysis and dry academicising the editors are pursuing authenticity and visibility. While this documentary format is somewhat mind-numbing when read from cover to cover, I have absolutely no doubt that the book will prove important in sensitising the caring professions and students of social administration to the invaluable and very difficult work that carers do.
16 citations
TL;DR: New and David as discussed by the authors argue that children are not yet the men and women who dominate and are dominated, but rather the women who are the dominant and dominating adults in the family.
Abstract: they acknowledge the contribution made by certain local authorities within the state sector, (largely as a result of women’s efforts and struggles within those authorities). Camden, for example, has changed its allocation system to abolish the ghettoisation of day-nursery users; Lambeth has established community-based management committees on which the parents of day-nursery children have some clout. Of greater concern is the authors’ stance on racism. We are, after all, bringing up a future generation, one which will be as sexist and racist as any other if we fail to act. ’Children are not yet the men and women who dominate and are dominated.’ There are several references to the need for anti-sexist and anti-racist objectives, but objectives are meaningless without practical strategies. And here, where we find a generous sprinkling of anti-sexist strategies, there is no corresponding measure against racism, nor is there any reference to the extensive research on the formation of racial attitudes, identity and stereotyping among children. New and David believe that ’we cannot wait for a sparkling new socialist society to produce new people with a higher consciousness’. Indeed not, but nor is it useful to suggest ideals that are discovered from material realities. Their co-parenting groups could well serve children’s needs far better than existing family structures, but they fail to deal with the tangle of obstacles confronting this vision. How, for example, are groups of adults caring for groups of children to be accommodated within housing stock designed for mum and dad and two kids? By what mechanism are local authorities to be forced into providing the free universally available children’s community centres envisaged, when the ideology and the funding of such provision would conflict with their economic and political interests? New and David ask ’why is it that feminists have had so little to say about the future of motherhood and childcare?, They answer that question by saying that ’mothers usually have little time and little or no money to buy themselves the space, to think through such questions’. Here are two women who have been able to make that space and, for their telling insights based upon their own experiences, I would recommend this book to parents who want to care ’for the children’s sake’. For the wealth of detail, the comprehensive review of so much literature in this area and the range of issues covered, I would also recommend it to practitioners and students in all fields of childcare and education. Hopefully, those engaged in the social policy industry will also take on board some of the suggestions for further research.
13 citations
TL;DR: The second world war strengthened the labour movement and laid the basis for the post-war socialdemocratic settlement, but not that war-time struggles by women workers for equal pay were defeated.
Abstract: Dale Spender, in the title of a recent book, argues that There’sAlwaysBeen a Women’s Movement This Century (Spender 1983). Yet most critical accounts of the development of the welfare state during the twentieth century have analysed its formation in terms of class struggle, ignoring conflicts based on gender interests. Thus, we are taught that the second wold war strengthened the labour movement and laid the basis for the post-war socialdemocratic settlement, but not that war-time struggles by women workers for equal pay were defeated. The 1942 Beveridge Report on social insurance is described as having received almost universal acclaim, and contemporary feminists’ critiques of the report are largely unrecorded in both standard and radical histories of this period.* *
10 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the reasons behind the failure to push ahead aggressively with decentralisation and identify public expenditure constraints and the resistance of established organisational interests as important factors.
Abstract: During the 1980s a number of Labour local authorities committed themselves to decentralising service delivery to neighbourhood bases and establishing new mechanisms of consumer control. Achievements in practice have been limited. This article examines the reasons behind the failure to push ahead aggressively with decentralisation. Public expenditure constraints and the resistance of established organisational interests are identified as important factors. It is further argued that on close examination the nature of Labour's support for decentralisation is, in some cases, conditional and pragmatic, and in others, it is riddled with contradictions and tensions. In short, Labour's failure reflects an under lying uncertainty about whether it wants a full-blooded decentralisation.
TL;DR: In this paper, a relatively straightforward account of some women's health work I have been involved in is given, with a fairly detailed picture both of some of the difficulties I had encountered and some of those ideas that seemed to work well.
Abstract: When I started writing this article, I set out to give a relatively straightforward account of some women’s health work I have been involved in, hoping to give a fairly detailed picture both of some of the difficulties I had encountered and some of the ideas that seemed to work well. However, as I progressed, two things became apparent: One was that if my narrative was going to be really detailed about the work I had been involved in, this would mean writing about other, often working-class women, in ways which could only
TL;DR: The authors examines the experience of those Labour authorities who emerged from the 1982 local elections, saw themselves as part of the 'new urban left' and so committed to constructing local socialism, and how those councillors then became locked into a series of unantici pated but actually inevitable bitter industrial disputes with their workers organized in NALGO.
Abstract: This paper examines the experience of those Labour authorities who emerged from the 1982 local elections, saw themselves as part of the 'new urban left' and so committed to constructing 'local socialism'. It seeks to explain how those councillors then became locked into a series of unantici pated but actually inevitable bitter industrial disputes with their workers organised in NALGO.It traces some of the recent developments both within the left of the Labour Party and white collar trade unionism which led to those conflicts. These wider ideas are then tested out by events in the London Borough of Southwark, specifically 1) the residential social workers' action and 2) the campaign against rate capping.The paper draws on interviews with NALGO shop stewards in South wark and concludes that the traditional positions of these trade unionists, although characterised as defensive, negative and obstructive by some Labour councillors, have actually stood the test of time rather better than the more ambitious hop...
TL;DR: In the incestuous families described in this paper, the far more dominant features of family life are relations of power, exploitation and the total helplessness of the victim; similarly, amongst the carers, although none of the relationships described are anything like as nauseating as incestuous relationships, power and exploitation and, particularly, feelings of entrapment and helplessness, often feature in their descriptions of their lives.
Abstract: son, 1983). At the time I wrote that article I knew practically nothing about incest and comforted myself that at least I was not alone. Now, thanks to Jean Renvoize’s careful ’state of the art’ study, there is no longer any excuse for total ignorance, although as Renvoize is continuously at pains to point out, the extent of our knowledge about the incidence and effects of incest is still extremely limited. But before turning to the individual books, it is important to justify coupling them together, if only in a book review. Both books demonstrate, yet again, how extremely complicated relationships within families are and how absurd it is to assume that family life is, exhaustively, loving life. In the incestuous families described here, the far more dominant features of family life are relations of power, exploitation and the total helplessness of the victim; similarly, amongst the carers, although none of the relationships described are anything like as nauseating as the incestuous relationships, power, exploitation and, particularly, feelings of entrapment and helplessness, often feature in the carers’ descriptions of their lives. Moreover, in both caring and incestu-
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show how both perspectives provide an inadequate analysis of gender roles in the kibbutz and thereby illustrate the flaws in the broader "nature versus nurture" debate.
Abstract: mon sense appeal’ which matches people’s lived experiences (Rose and Rose, 1982 p.l l), and partly because ’it provides an apparent justification for the comfortable choice of leaving things as they are’ (Mednick, 1983 p.82). Feminists therefore have to expose and contest the sociobiological arguments wherever they appear. Since the beginnings of modern feminist thought in the late nineteenth century, the ’nature versus nurture’ debate concerning gender roles has raged. On the ’nature’ side, adherents believe that gender differences are ’natural’ and rooted in biology. On the ’nurture’ side, adherents stress the socio-economic determinants of sexual inequality and deny its biological roots. With the second wave of feminist thought in the late 1960s and early 1970s, biology once again began to be used to explain women’s social status by conservative anti-feminists (Sayers, 1982 p.2). Sociobiology specifically aims to discredit feminism and, as such, forms one of the main organising principles of the new right’s political philosophy (Rose and Rose, 1982 p.8). This general debate has been reflected in the debate surrounding the kibbutz, where sociobiologists looked at the experience of women in the kibbutz and found that they had failed to achieve sexual equality, thus proving the natural difference between the sexes. This view is challenged by an opposing school of thought who may broadly be described as cultural determinists. They, on the whole, agree that the kibbutz has failed to achieve sexual equality but give cultural and sociological explanations for this failure. Neither the sociobiologists nor the cultural determinists are a homogeneous school of thought: within each there are differences of interpretation. But by using this division, I intend to show how both perspectives provide an inadequate analysis of gender roles in the kibbutz and thereby illustrate the flaws in the broader ’nature versus nurture’ debate. The kibbutz has attempted a radical transformation of economic and social relationships, It has socialised everything that oppresses women within the family and in the public world, and so this article also asks the question ’does the kibbutz offer a model for a feminist approach to social policy?’
Abstract: contradictions simultaneously enmeshing us and yet allowing for freedom of expression. It is also seen as protecting our fragile selves and revealing of our inner yearnings. Feminist theory must also be continually self-questioning, whilst remaining dynamic. This book contributes to, and opens up areas of investigation around theories of sexuality and pleasure, which are fundamental to any analysis of women’s position. Fashion has been a domain where women have been able to display expertise and skill, and without ignoring the more negative, constrictive aspects of fashion, it should be celebrated as something which can give women pleasure, self-esteem and identity.
TL;DR: The authors examine the "pro-family" views of the new right the Thatcher government and the "moral" and "liberal" right pressure groups in the UK and identify three parties to the conflict new right political pressure groups, feminists and liberals.
Abstract: A ’war over the family’ rages, not only in the USA, as Berger and Berger have argued recently (1984), but also in Britain. They identify three parties to the conflict new right political pressure groups, feminists and liberals. As liberals, they develop a spirited defence of the ’liberal’ state for providing both sexual equality in public life and also sustaining the privacy of the family. In Britain, the combatants are similar although the positions are less well articulated (David, 1986). Lucy Bland is one of the few feminists who attempts a feminist vision of the family, in arguing for an alternative ’sexual morality’ (1985, p.21). Building on Bland’s vision, I examine the ’pro-family’ views of the new right the Thatcher government and the ’moral’ and ’liberal’ right pressure groups. There is a core value of ’motherhood’ in the conservative notion of the family (New and David, 1985). Digby Anderson expresses this notion well, in an article aptly entitled ’Ripe for a British Moral Majority’. He argues for ’the cause of the normal family ... husband and wife living with their own children, the husband the major earner, the spouses intending and trying to stay together, (The Times, 15.10.85, p.12). This notion underpins the various issues about the family which have dominated the political agenda in the last year. They range from the Gillick case on parental consent over contraceptive advice to girls under 16 years old, to the Warnock Committee’s report on human fertilisation and embryology and the consequent debates on reproductive technology and surrogate motherhood, and Enoch Powell’s two private member’s bills in parliament on the protection of (unborn) children. There has also been a debate about child care as well as the conditions of maternity and childbirth, namely over the taxation of workplace nurseries, and parental or family leave from employment to care for sick children and
TL;DR: The reasons given for the arrest vary from the suggestion that Jarrett was driving a car with an invalid tax disc to the claim that the police suspected that his new BMW was a stolen car.
Abstract: son Floyd, though without his consent. Floyd Jarrett did not live with his mother and was not charged with a property offence but rather with assaulting a police officer whilst under arrest. The reasons given for the arrest vary from the suggestion that Jarrett was driving a car with an invalid tax disc to the claim that the police suspected that his new BMW was a stolen car. The raid on Mrs Jarrett’s house speaks volumes about the confidence and sensitivity of the Metropolitan Police. The raid on a house which Floyd Jarrett did not live in, for purposes which could bear no conceivable relationship to the grounds on which he was initially stopped, can only be understood
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors make a strong and welcome case for women to be treated equally with men, whatever their household status, and for "caring", whether for children, the sick or disabled, or the elderly, to be a role which should attract benefit.
Abstract: earners and not on family circumstances or means tests. It attacks the present income maintenance system for its reliance on means-tested supplementary benefit and for subsidising, through FIS, employers who pay inadequate wages, as well as for levels of benefit which are far too low. It makes a strong and welcome case for women to be treated equally with men, whatever their household status, and for ’caring’, whether for children, the sick or disabled, or the elderly, to be a role which should attract benefit. It also calls for a statutory minimum wage as an alternative to Family Income Supplement, arguing that employers should be made to pay the full cost of the labour they hire. The book will be of interest to all those looking for an implementable and more redistributive alternative both to the present social security system and to right-wing negative income tax proposals, and it has already been welcomed by the Labour Social Security Campaign. However, it may be a disappointment to those who seek to follow through the authors’ argument that labour market strategy and social security cannot be separated. The left needs to develop its own counter-attack to the Tories’ labour market strategy, correctly identified in Who’s to benefit? as a policy of ’actively encouraging employers to pay badly’. However, a statutory minimum wage is not enough. The social security system itself needs to be harnessed to the counter-attack, and this would involve much more radical changes than Esam, Good and Middleton suggest. The plan of this review is to deal first with questions of practical detail, which will concern those who fundamentally agree with Esam, Good and Middleton’s proposals and want to implement them. This process throws up some contradictions of their ’positional benefits’ system which are taken up in the second part to argue that a ’basic income guarantee’ of the type demanded by the Claimants’ Unions is the appropriate social security component of a left labour market strategy.