Showing papers in "Critical Social Policy in 2015"
TL;DR: In the aftermath of the global banking crises, a political economy of permanent state austerity has emerged, driven by and legitimated through a hardening anti-welfare commonsense as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In the aftermath of the global banking crises, a political economy of permanent state austerity has emerged, driven by and legitimated through a hardening anti-welfare commonsense. We argue that, w...
194 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw on their research into brain science and early intervention, using reviews of key policy literature and interviews with influential advocates of early intervention and with early years practitioners, to critically assess the ramifications and implications of these claims.
Abstract: Ideas that the quality of parental nurturing and attachment in the first years of a child’s life is formative, hard-wiring their brains for success or failure, are reflected in policy reports from across the political spectrum and in targeted services delivering early intervention. In this article we draw on our research into ‘Brain science and early intervention’, using reviews of key policy literature and interviews with influential advocates of early intervention and with early years practitioners, to critically assess the ramifications and implications of these claims. Rather than upholding the ‘hopeful ethos’ proffered by advocates of the progressive nature of brain science and early intervention, we show that brain claims are justifying gendered, raced and social inequalities, positioning poor mothers as architects of their children’s deprivation.
84 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the potential for a predictive risk model to contribute to a neo-liberal agenda that individualises social problems, reifies risk and abuse, and narrowly prescribes service provision.
Abstract: The White Paper on Vulnerable Children before the Aotearoa/New Zealand parliament proposes changes that will significantly reconstruct the child welfare systems in this country, including the use of a predictive risk model (PRM). This article explores the ethics of this strategy in a child welfare context. Tensions exist, including significant ethical problems such as use of information without consent, breaches of privacy and stigmatisation, without clear evidence of the benefits outweighing these costs. Broader implicit assumptions about the causes of child abuse and risk and their intersections with wider discursive, political and systems design contexts are discussed. Drawing on Houston et al. (2010) this paper highlights the potential for a PRM to contribute to a neo-liberal agenda that individualises social problems, reifies risk and abuse, and narrowly prescribes service provision. However, with reference to child welfare and child protection orientations, the paper suggests more ethical ways of using the model. Language: en
70 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conceptualized personalisation as embodying two aspects (marketisation and social justice) and explored their interaction in discourses and practices of personalisation in disability services and healthcare.
Abstract: Personalisation is a key term in contemporary British social policy. This article conceptualises personalisation as embodying two aspects – marketisation and social justice – and explores their interaction in discourses and practices of personalisation in disability services and healthcare. Comparing the application and reception of personalisation in these two social policy domains, the article identifies a tendency of marketisation to override social justice and highlights the negative implications of this tendency. The analysis is further contextualised by looking at the uses of personalisation to legitimise retrenchment of public provision in the context of post-2008 austerity. In conclusion, the article calls for a critical engagement with the dominant interpretations of personalisation in order to prevent its reduction to a vehicle for unchecked marketisation of social policy.
58 citations
TL;DR: Since 1977 homelessness legislation in England has offered limited statutory accommodation rights to unintentionally homeless people who are judged to be in priority need and able to demonstrate a willingness to be accommodated as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Since 1977 homelessness legislation in England has offered limited statutory accommodation rights to unintentionally homeless people who are judged to be in priority need and able to demonstrate a ...
44 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the 2010-15 Conservative-Liberal Coalition government's active labour market policy was described as the most recent phase in a state "strategy of under-performance".
Abstract: Drawing on Autonomist Marxist theory this article situates the 2010–15 Conservative–Liberal Coalition government’s active labour market policy as the most recent phase in a state ‘strategy of under...
41 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the representation of housing risk in contemporary Australian policy discourse through a critical analysis of two policy texts from the recent Victorian Coalition government (2.5 and 3.1).
Abstract: The article examines the representation of housing risk in contemporary Australian policy discourse through a critical analysis of two policy texts from the recent Victorian Coalition government (2...
37 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the themes of class in connection to transnational relationships and citizenship in the formulation of the new family migration rules, in the justifications that have been made for the rules and in the impact of the rules on applicants.
Abstract: In July 2012 the Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition government introduced a new set of family migration rules. These rules set a sharp increase in the minimum income threshold for people sponsoring partners and children to join them in the UK. Consequently, there has been a significant reduction in the number of visas granted through the family migration route. This article explores the themes of class in connection to transnational relationships and citizenship in the formulation of the new family migration rules, in the justifications that have been made for the rules and in the impact of the rules on applicants. It is argued that in the context of international migration and transnational relationships, class-based moralism and regulation has been entwined with exclusionary discourses on ethnicity, national belonging and citizenship and has been extended beyond the nation-state border towards the governing of particular kinds of international family.
36 citations
TL;DR: The government is opening up children's social work services, including child protection investigations and assessments, decisions about initiating care proceedings in the courts to have children removed from their families, and decisions where children should then live, to the market and to the private sector with companies such as G4S and Serco expanding into children’s social services as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: There is a long history of voluntary and other organisations, along with the state, providing social services for children in England. But crucial assessments and decision-making about the care and protection of children have been undertaken by local authorities within the context of democratic accountability and transparency. This is changing. The government is opening up children’s social work services, including child protection investigations and assessments, decisions about initiating care proceedings in the courts to have children removed from their families, and decisions where children should then live, to the market and to the private sector with companies such as G4S and Serco expanding into children’s social services. Nowhere else in the world are profit-driven companies given these powers. This article traces how this radical change is moving forward at pace.
34 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that advocacy of early intervention, in particular that which deploys the authority of "the neuroscience", places parents at the centre of the policy stage but simultaneously demotes and marginalises them.
Abstract: This article discusses the findings of a study tracing the incorporation of claims about infant brain development into English family policy as part of the longer term development of a ‘parent training’, early intervention agenda. The main focus is on the ways in which the deployment of neuroscientific discourse in family policy creates the basis for a new governmental oversight of parents. We argue that advocacy of ‘early intervention’, in particular that which deploys the authority of ‘the neuroscience’, places parents at the centre of the policy stage but simultaneously demotes and marginalises them. So we ask, what becomes of the parent when politically and culturally, the child is spoken of as infinitely and permanently neurologically vulnerable to parental influence? In particular, the policy focus on parental emotions and their impact on infant brain development indicates that this represents a biologisation of ‘therapeutic’ governance.
33 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw on the Essex school of political discourse theory and develop a "nodal" analytical framework to argue that widespread and repeated appeals to a narrative of choice-based integrated care served to take the fragmentation "sting" out of radical critiques of the pro-competition reform process.
Abstract: The period 2010–2013 was a time of far-reaching structural reforms of the National Health Service in England. Of particular interest in this paper is the way in which radical critiques of the reform process were marginalised by pragmatic concerns about how to maintain the market-competition thrust of the reforms while avoiding potential fragmentation. We draw on the Essex school of political discourse theory and develop a ‘nodal’ analytical framework to argue that widespread and repeated appeals to a narrative of choice-based integrated care served to take the fragmentation ‘sting’ out of radical critiques of the pro-competition reform process. This served to marginalise alternative visions of health and social care, and to pre-empt the contestation of a key norm in the provision of health care that is closely associated with the notions of ‘any willing provider’ and ‘any qualified provider’: provider-blind provision.
TL;DR: Banks in Spain are receiving millions of euros of taxpayers' money, while hundreds of home owners are being evicted as discussed by the authors, unable to continue paying their mortgages because of unemployment or insecure employment.
Abstract: Banks in Spain are receiving millions of euros of taxpayers’ money, while hundreds of home owners are being evicted. Unable to continue paying their mortgages because of unemployment or insecure em...
TL;DR: In a context of localism and public sector cuts in the United Kingdom, women's domestic violence refuges are experiencing funding cuts and service restrictions as discussed by the authors, and the findings of a...
Abstract: In a context of localism and public sector cuts in the United Kingdom, women’s domestic violence refuges are experiencing funding cuts and service restrictions. This article presents findings of a ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the impact of sanctions from the perspectives of those who have been or are most likely to be affected by the use of employer sanctions, in the form of raids and fines on businesses found to be employing people who do not have permission to work in the UK, as a method of in-border immigration control.
Abstract: The context of this article is the use of employer sanctions, in the form of raids and fines on businesses found to be employing people who do not have permission to work in the UK, as a method of in-border immigration control. Drawing on qualitative interviews with undocumented migrants and ethnic enclave employers in London, this article examines the impact of sanctions from the perspectives of those who have been or are most likely to be affected. More specifically the article sheds light on individual experiences of and strategies against immigration enforcement raids, and the effect of raids on the labour market, conditions of work and more widely, on local community relations. The paper concludes that there is a disjuncture between the real impact of sanctions and at least some of the stated policy aims.
TL;DR: While the norm of customary care can sometimes protect citizens from taking on too much responsibility, it has an enforcing element for many others who do not agree with its norms that has implications for principles of equality, particularly in times of austerity.
Abstract: In most welfare states, home care for elderly and disabled persons relies on a combination of private and public responsibilities, with gatekeepers adjudicating access to publicly funded care. Unlike other governments, the Dutch government has codified an explicit ‘customary care principle’ that defines the ‘normal daily care that partners, parents, co-resident children or other household members are supposed to offer each other’ (CIZ, 2013a) to calculate entitlements to publicly funded care. But the norms set by the Dutch government do not always mirror what citizens consider normal. Using national statistics and interviews with family care-givers, care recipients and assessors, we find that while the norm of customary care can sometimes protect citizens from taking on too much responsibility, it has an enforcing element for many others who do not agree with its norms. We discuss the implications of this coercive element for principles of equality, particularly in times of austerity.
TL;DR: This paper explored empirical evidence from two major cities in the North West of England, which highlights an association between deprivation and rioting in both criminal charge and sentencing data allowing further exploration of some of these issues.
Abstract: Despite media and political rhetoric to the contrary, there is persuasive evidence to suggest an association between deprivation and those involved in the English riots of 2011, which continues to be downplayed when developing responses to crime and crime prevention policy. This study explores empirical evidence from two major cities in the North West of England, which highlights an association between deprivation and rioting in both criminal charge and sentencing data allowing further exploration of some of these issues. The paper argues that to mask the rioting as ‘mindless criminality’ is to ignore wider social-structural inequalities and to silence important messages contained in the rioting behaviour from disenfranchised youth and communities about the inequalities they suffer.
TL;DR: This commentary examines policies on stronger provider regulation in England and concludes that they are insufficiently robust and suggests some alternative measures.
Abstract: Public services are being increasingly outsourced across Europe, and especially in England. This trend raises the question of how to deal with ‘market failure’ where outsourced providers are no lon...
TL;DR: David Cameron's "Big Society" agenda is best understood in terms of ideological and policy continuities with earlier Conservative and New Labour governments as mentioned in this paper. But where previous post-1979 government...
Abstract: David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ agenda is best understood in terms of ideological and policy continuities with earlier Conservative and New Labour governments. But where previous post-1979 government...
TL;DR: Through the introduction of welfare states and social policy, owners of labour power acquired alternatives to the permanent sale of their labour as mentioned in this paper, which created the conditions for the creation of social security.
Abstract: Through the introduction of welfare states and social policy, owners of labour power acquired alternatives to the permanent sale of their labour. Entitlements to social security created the conditi...
TL;DR: The authors analyzed the administrative and research capture of child support data as a case study of how institutional data collection processes are performative in perpetuating gendered inequalities and found that these processes in turn provided benefits to fathers and the state in the form of reduced child support liabilities and enforcement action, and welfare outlays, respectively.
Abstract: This article analyses the administrative and research capture of child support data as a case study of how institutional data collection processes are performative in perpetuating gendered inequalities. We compare interviews with 19 low-income single mothers and their longitudinal survey responses from the same research to reveal how low-income women strategically or inadvertently ‘smoothed’ their experiences when responding to data collection processes. This directly resulted in material and symbolic costs in the form of reduced welfare benefits and limited evidence with which to lobby for policy reform. These processes in turn provided benefits to fathers and the state in the form of reduced child support liabilities and enforcement action, and welfare outlays, respectively. We conclude that current administrative and research data collection practices provide a limited and gendered evidence base for administrative justice and policy reform.
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study of Korean nonprofits engaged in a workfare scheme reveals how nonprofits manage to safeguard their reciprocal culture and solidarity by strategically appropriating the methods of the capitalist market.
Abstract: Many critical studies have warned that government–nonprofit partnership in welfare provision can lead to the marketisation of the nonprofit sector. However, this article contends that the adoption of market-like approaches does not necessarily result in the complete marketisation of the sector. Through a case study of Korean nonprofits engaged in a workfare scheme, this article reveals how nonprofits manage to safeguard their reciprocal culture and solidarity by strategically appropriating the methods of the capitalist market. By outlining these street-level activities, this study aims to underline the persistence of cooperative traditions in the nonprofit sector even within a competition-driven policy environment.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the use of support groups for young parents and concluded that writing in an ethic of care approach to policies designed to support teenage parents would be beneficial for service provision.
Abstract: This article draws on two qualitative research projects with teenage parents and examines their use of support groups. It argues that group-based programmes such as the ones discussed here convey particular advantages in providing support for young parents which may not be possible in a one-to-one context. These include peer learning, the development of friendships as a form of social support and respite. The article argues, however, that for these potentials to be realised, an underpinning ethic of care is required. Using Joan Tronto’s four phases of care (caring about, caring for, caregiving and care receiving) and their concomitant elements (attentiveness, responsibility, competence and responsiveness) the practices of the group leaders in providing support are analysed. The article concludes by arguing that ‘writing in’ an ethic of care approach to policies designed to support teenage parents would be beneficial for service provision.
TL;DR: This article analyzed French government statements and practices concerning Roma in the period from summer 2010 to late 2013 as a case study and put into relief the contrasts between EU emphasis on Roma as citizens with rights, and official French attitudes which are largely discriminatory.
Abstract: McGarry (2012) in CSP presented significant aspects and dilemmas of European Union (EU) policy towards Roma. Developing points raised there, this article analyses French government statements and practices concerning Roma in the period from summer 2010 to late 2013 as a case study. It puts into relief the contrasts between EU emphasis on Roma as citizens with rights, and official French attitudes which are largely discriminatory. The frequency at the highest levels of the French state of widely-used anti-Roma cliches: ‘alien values’; ‘cultural difference’; threat to property, safety, and health; crime, etc. is highly problematic for the development of citizen rights in the face of both the principle and reality of free mobility within the EU. The change in government in France in 2012 did not end either the discriminatory discourse or the expulsions, which commentators think is due to French and European Parliamentary elections in 2014.
TL;DR: In this article, the role of evidence in political decision-making through the case of David Nutt is examined. But, the case is different from ours in that it is argued that the status of expert knowledge is in crisis for both the natural and the social sciences, and that high-stakes political issues can open up unprecedented opportunities for critical voices to engage in unbridled critique and mobilise movements of dissent.
Abstract: In October 2009, Professor David Nutt, eminent neuropsychopharmacologist and world leading expert on drugs, was dismissed as Chair of the UK government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs for comments he made at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies’ Eve Saville lecture. This article considers the role of evidence in political decision-making through the case of David Nutt. It is argued that the status of expert knowledge is in crisis for both the natural and the social sciences. We examine the role of the criminological advisor within emerging discourses of public criminology and suggest that high-stakes political issues can open up unprecedented opportunities for critical voices to engage in unbridled critique and to mobilise movements of dissent.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the motivations behind a 2007 reform in Sweden to implement a tax deduction on domestic services for households, and how the reform could be passed despite extensive political opposition to it.
Abstract: This article considers the motivations behind a 2007 reform in Sweden to implement a tax deduction on domestic services for households, and how the reform could be passed despite extensive political opposition to it. Critical framing analysis is used to argue that at least a partial explanation for the policy reform is to be found in the inherent limitations of the gender equality policy as hitherto pursued in the country, and in the way these limitations were framed in the political debates to push for the reform. The analysis draws upon public documents and records of parliamentary and media debates.