Showing papers in "Social Policy & Administration in 2008"
TL;DR: In this paper, the main shifts in the political and public discourse about families, children, elderly people, care needs and women-friendly policies in Italy over the last two decades are analyzed.
Abstract: This article analyses the main shifts in the political and public discourse about families, children, elderly people, care needs and women-friendly policies in Italy over the last two decades. It shows that while family and gender relationships have become an ideologically highly charged public issue, policies at the practical level have remained largely stagnant, marginal and fragmentary. At the same time, important institutional changes (such as the constitutional reform of 2001, which introduced a form of federalism) have created new problems of governance. The authors argue that in the face of inadequate policies, the recourse of individuals and families to old (family solidarity) and new (migrant labour) solutions may cause new tensions and inequalities.
150 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine new policies currently being implemented in England aimed at increasing the choice and control that disabled and older people can exercise over the social care support and services they receive.
Abstract: This paper critically examines new policies currently being implemented in England aimed at increasing the choice and control that disabled and older people can exercise over the social care support and services they receive. The development of these policies, and their elaboration in three policy documents published during 2005, are summarized. The paper then discusses two issues underpinning these proposals: the role of quasi-markets within publicly funded social care services; and the political and policy discourses of consumerism and choice within the welfare state. Despite powerful critiques of welfare consumerism, the paper argues that there are nevertheless very important reasons for taking choice seriously when considering how best to organize and deliver support and other services for disabled and older people. A policy discourse on consumerism, however, combined with the use of market mechanisms for implementing this, may be highly problematic as the means of creating opportunities for increased choice and, on its own, risks introducing new forms of disadvantage and social exclusion.
150 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the rise of vulnerability-led policy-making and argue that the current conceptualization of resilience assumes that vulnerability is the defining condition of social life, and that one likely consequence of this approach is the reinforcement of the passive side of public life.
Abstract: The aim of this article is to explore the rise of vulnerability-led policy-making. It attempts to engage with the apparent puzzle of why the official rhetoric of promoting resilience frequently gives way to an orientation towards an emphasis on vulnerability. It contends that the current conceptualization of resilience assumes that vulnerability is the defining condition of social life. One likely consequence of this approach is the reinforcement of the passive side of public life.
92 citations
TL;DR: In recent years a major challenge for the EU has emerged around social issues and collective identities as mentioned in this paper, with the emergence of a European political community that has diminished national sovereignty at a time when global forces are also undermining nation states, both Europe and migration become linked as sources of instability.
Abstract: In recent years a major challenge for the EU has emerged around social issues and collective identities. With the emergence of a European political community that has diminished national sovereignty at a time when global forces are also undermining nation states, both Europe and migration become linked as sources of instability. Anxieties about Europe and migration are linked with fears of a clash of civilizations and anxieties about social securities. Social discontent, fuelled by socio-economic changes, has undermined the traditional sources of identity around class and the nation, releasing xenophobic and nationalistic currents. Fear of others and anxieties about the future have emerged as potent social forces in contemporary society. The result is a crisis of European solidarity, along with a wider crisis of collective purpose. To combat such developments it is essential that the European project gives greater attention to issues of social justice and inclusive forms of social solidarity.
73 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the introduction of the term work-life balance, the reasons for it, and its significance at the policy level, especially in terms of its implications for the pursuit of gender equality.
Abstract: Since 1997, Labour has developed a wide range of policies on childcare services, care leaves and flexible working hours. In 2000, the term ‘work-life balance’ was introduced and has been used by Government Departments and by the academic community with very little discussion of its meaning vis a vis the use of ‘family-friendly’ policies, or the promotion of ‘work and family balance’. We explore the introduction of the term work-life balance, the reasons for it, and its significance at the policy level, especially in terms of its implications for the pursuit of gender equality. We find that at the policy level, its use was more a matter of strategic framing than substantive change. Nevertheless, because of the UK Government's largely gender-neutral approach to the whole policy field, it is important to make explicit the tensions in the continuing use of the term work-life balance, particularly in relation to the achievement of gender equality.
63 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a method to solve the problem of how to find the minimum number of neurons for a given set of neurons in order to obtain the maximum number of connections.
Abstract: The original article can be found at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com Copyright Blackwell Publishing DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9515.2008.00630.x
62 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the current social policy reform process in Turkey from a gender perspective and question whether it promises equal citizenship for women or increases their vulnerability, in the absence of former benefits and without sufficient policy measures for improved capability.
Abstract: This article discusses the current social policy reform process in Turkey from a gender perspective. Until now, social security and labour regulations have provided women with special benefits and protections. Depending on the particular case, these gender-specific policies can be interpreted differently ‐ as positive discrimination, satisfying practical gender interests, or as a reinforcement of traditional gender norms and relations, stigmatizing women as a weaker, vulnerable group in need of special protection. Ongoing reform initiatives, however, neutralize most of these long-lasting gendered policies, either by terminating rights formerly enjoyed only by women or by extending these rights to men as well. The article questions this changing nature of social policy as to whether it promises equal citizenship for women or increases their vulnerability, in the absence of former benefits and without sufficient policy measures for improved capability.
58 citations
TL;DR: The dominant welfare regimes approach, like the historical-institutionalism on which it draws, predicts path-dependent responses to contemporary challenges as discussed by the authors, where markets and families retain a key role, supplemented by modest state supports.
Abstract: The dominant welfare regimes approach, like the historical-institutionalism on which it draws, predicts path-dependent responses to contemporary challenges. According to this, Canada's social policy regime clearly belongs to the (mainly Anglo-American) ‘liberal’ family, where markets and families retain a key role, supplemented by modest state supports. Yet, as some have recognized, there are important differences among liberal regimes and within a particular welfare regime over time. There are, in other words, ‘varieties of liberalism’. This article argues, moreover, that in the contemporary period Canadian welfare reform has been characterized by warring principles for redesign. While some have sought to deepen the postwar social project, the main trends have been neo-liberal restructuring and, more recently, policies inspired by ‘inclusive liberalism’, though less deeply than under Blair's government in the UK. The continued existence of such alternatives suggests the need for a more nuanced conception of path-dependent change, consistent with recent revisionist trends in historical-institutionalism.
54 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the role of inter-agency cooperation in new approaches to employability in the UK and argued that successful partnerships need a clear strategic focus based on a necessity for inter-agent cooperation and institutional arrangements that allow for shared ownership, trust and mutualism, and flexibility in resource-sharing.
Abstract: This article examines the role of inter-agency cooperation, which is one form of ‘partnership’, in new approaches to employability in the UK. The article articulates a ‘model for effective partnership working’ on employability. This model is applied first in a general review of employability policy and then to discuss case study research on the recent ‘Pathways to Work’ and ‘Working Neighbourhoods’ pilots. It is argued that successful partnerships need a clear strategic focus based on a necessity for inter-agency cooperation and institutional arrangements that allow for shared ownership, trust and mutualism, and flexibility in resource-sharing. While some of these factors are apparent in UK employability services, an over-reliance on contractualism and centralized organizational structures may undermine partnership-based approaches. Many of the success factors associated with effective partnership working appeared to be in place, even though the role of the Public Employment Service was fundamentally different in each case (as a key actor in implementing the first pilot, but largely withdrawing from the implementation role in the second). The article concludes by outlining the relevance of this model and the case study findings to discussions of the future development of employability policies and related partnership working.
51 citations
TL;DR: In this article, an empirical analysis of the social space in which the state and the market merge, by design, and the resulting processes and outcomes of social exclusion that operate for women who parent alone is presented.
Abstract: The popular version of social exclusion has given rise to various forms of welfare-to-work initiatives in most developed capitalist nations. Social inclusion, therefore, is commonly assumed to be achieved through paid work. The delivery of social welfare through employment activation programmes is consequential, as it necessitates an unusual cooperation between the welfare state and the labour market. With a focus on Ontario Works, a relatively mature example of Canada's residualized social welfare services, this article is an empirical analysis of the social space in which the state and the market merge – by design – and the resulting processes and outcomes of social exclusion that operate for women who parent alone. I begin with a brief review of the most popular concept of social exclusion, and the pre-eminent place of paid work in related social policy responses, followed by a consideration of the ideological context producing and reinforced by work-first programmes. Our attention is turned to a reconfigured notion of social exclusion as process and outcome, spontaneously set in motion and self-perpetuating in the fused market–state social field. Through a case study of lone mother experiences of Ontario Works, the specific ideological practices through which welfare-to-work strategies operate to keep women in their place are described. I argue that the analysis of the market-state as a unified social field – ordered according to the paired ideologies of market neo-liberalism and conservative ‘family values’– is necessary for conceiving policy responses that are effective in interrupting the dynamic process–outcome iterations of social exclusion.
45 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze four cases of governance in Italian local welfare systems and highlight the implications of this complex system that is leading local authorities to open new governance arenas, mainly regional and municipal.
Abstract: This article analyses four cases of governance in Italian local welfare systems. Following Law / , the design and management of the social services system in Italy involve different public responsibility levels, mainly regional and municipal. In order to manage social policies, Italian municipalities have to join in new inter-municipal groupings called ‘Piani di Zona’ (Area Plans). Moreover, the law provides for engaging in these Plans even local third-sector organizations and citizens. The article attempts to highlight the implications of this complex system that is leading local authorities to open new governance arenas. We hereby present the results of a research project on two Piani di Zona in the Region of Lombardy (Northern Italy) and on two in the Region of Campania (Southern Italy), carried out by means of institutional analysis. We particularly focus on the dynamics of participation triggered by the Piani di Zona. Our hypothesis is that the role of public administration is a fundamental variable to understand the different ways of participating. In this sense, we discuss the dynamics of local governance by relaying them to four main questions: who participates in what, where and how?
TL;DR: The main finding is that only in Sweden has the central regulation of old-age care been weak and unspecific, thereby eventually causing a nationwide weakening of olds' care universalism.
Abstract: In Sweden and Denmark, the development of old-age care has followed markedly divergent paths over the past 20 years. In both countries, the level of old-age care universalism was exceptionally high in the early 1980s. Since then it has dropped sharply in Sweden, while remaining constantly high in Denmark. These divergent trends are clearly irreconcilable with the common image of a coherent Scandinavian welfare state model, and they seem hard to explain with reference to traditional approaches of comparative social policy. This article attempts to account for the divergent developments by focusing on the balance of old-age care regulation between central and local government. The main finding is that only in Sweden has the central regulation of old-age care been weak and unspecific. As a consequence, Swedish municipalities have enjoyed sufficient autonomous, regulatory competence to exercise certain local retrenchment measures in times of austerity, thereby eventually causing a nationwide weakening of old-age care universalism. By contrast, municipalities in Denmark have been much more tightly bound by central state regulations which have prevented them from imposing similar retrenchment measures in the old-age care sector; consequently, Denmark's level of old-age care universalism has remained comparatively high.
TL;DR: In this article, the Lombardy region's experience of government during the past twelve years is discussed, and the main characteristics of the emerging governance model are discussed: its political, juridical and social contexts; its underlying principles; its main policy goals, instruments and initiatives; and its criticalities and challenges.
Abstract: This article provides a concise overview of the Lombardy region’s experience of government during the past twelve years. During this period, legislative, political and administrative strategic decisions have been informed by a distinctive vision, anchored in the principle of subsidiarity. The main characteristics of the emerging governance model are discussed: its political, juridical and social contexts; its underlying principles; its main policy goals, instruments and initiatives; and its criticalities and challenges.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the development of local welfare in Italy and are grounded on a research project focusing on activation as a main feature of change in Italian social policies.
Abstract: This article deals with the development of local welfare in Italy and is grounded on a research project focusing on activation as a main feature of change in Italian social policies. Along with decentralization processes, many Italian regions have been acting as policy laboratories, developing and testing very different approaches according to their political attitude. On the one hand this results in a fragmented policy landscape which is difficult to recompose, and, moreover, in growing inequalities in the Italian welfare system. On the other hand, it opens opportunities for experimentation on institutional and organizational structures on a regional scale, creating a variety of practices for research and policy analysis. In the article we first describe the main trends in national social policies, with a specific focus on the dynamics of change referring to activation. We will then focus on a pilot programme which is aiming at the promotion and implementation of innovative practices in health and social care services in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, a region in which there is a significant orientation towards enhancing social citizenship and enforcing the central position of the public actor. We investigate how the dynamics of territorialization and personalization, implied by the programme, trigger specific logics and practices of activation. Finally, referring to this case study, we propose an analytical overview of some relevant issues in the development of ‘local active welfare’ in Italy.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the implementation of policy on adult protection as outlined in "No Secrets", the government's guidance to local agencies, and found that people gave precedence to their own professional norms and organizational priorities over partnership working.
Abstract: Using a classification of public policy developed by Matland, we examine implementation of policy on adult protection as outlined in ‘No Secrets’, the government's guidance to local agencies. This policy appears to exemplify a ‘high-ambiguity/low-conflict’ model. Detailed interviews with staff charged with developing multi-agency procedures, in local authority departments, health authorities, the police and the voluntary sector, confirmed the ambiguity of the policy and the uncertainty experienced by staff as a consequence. However, the interviews also revealed a number of areas of conflict, particularly as people gave precedence to their own professional norms and organizational priorities over partnership working.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed recent changes in the Greek and Spanish national health services and assessed how the period of austerity and further recovery during the 1990 s and early 2000 s impacted on them in terms of equity and efficiency.
Abstract: This article analyses recent changes in the Greek and Spanish national health services. The aim is to assess how the period of austerity and further recovery during the 1990 s and early 2000 s impacted on them in terms of equity and efficiency. This is of interest because of the closeness in time between the universalizing reform laws and the arrival of the conditions for economic convergence established in the Maastricht Treaty. The analysis is also attractive because it deals with the transformation of already mature health insurance systems into national health services, a transformation that is novel in European welfare history. The article addresses the questions of whether austerity has hindered full implementation of the reform laws enacted in the early to mid- 1980 s, examining reform trajectories and financing and expenditure trends. Furthermore, it considers the impact on access, understood in terms of population coverage, the array of services provided, waiting lists, and territorial inequalities. Finally, it discusses the introduction of new managerial formulas and attempts at enhancing efficiency. The concluding section states that divergent trajectories have occurred, thus rendering the definition of a ‘Southern model of health care’ difficult. It also provides explanations of the trajectories followed in both national cases and informs on prospects for the future.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the critical factors in the public protection trend and the framing of risk and risky offenders that has ensued and explore the new surveillance and intervention mechanisms under the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and whether these arrangements manage risk or displace it.
Abstract: Growing media, political and public concern with high‐risk offenders in the community has focused policy attention on the concept of ‘public protection’. A notion that the public has the right to be protected, particularly from ‘monstrous’ offenders such as predatory paedophiles, has infiltrated much recent legislation and penal policy. This article will explore the critical factors in the ‘public protection’ trend and the framing of risk and risky offenders that has ensued. In particular, attention will be given to the new surveillance and intervention mechanisms under the Multi‐Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and whether these arrangements manage risk or displace it. To what extent are they driven by the ‘precautionary principle’ and defensive responses to risks that are over‐inflated? To what extent does this result in ‘perverse incentives’ to over‐manage certain risks and to over‐concentrate on restrictive risk management techniques such as electronic tagging, satellite surveillance and curfews rather than treatment? Does the system represent effective risk management or a system for dealing with risk anxiety – both of the public(s) and of politicians?
TL;DR: The impact of New Public Management on public trust in welfare state institutions, using the example of NHS reform, was discussed in this paper. But, as stated by the authors, "the market does not offer a royal road to perceptions of superior quality in the objective factors".
Abstract: This article discusses the impact of New Public Management on public trust in welfare state institutions, using the example of NHS reform. Discussion of trust in public institutions across political science, psychology and sociology indicates that it is based on both rational/objective considerations (competence and capacity to deliver the service) and affectual/subjective factors (shared values, belief that the trustee shares the trustor's interests). The New Public Management foregrounds individual responsibility and incentives for both suppliers and users of services, in the NHS example in quasi-markets, management by target and patient choice. These accord with an individualized market rational-actor model rather than with affective considerations. Analysis of attitude survey data on the NHS confirms that rational/objective and affectual/subjective factors contribute to public trust in this field. However, a comparison between perceptions in England, where the internal market has been vigorously pursued, and Scotland, where the purchaser/provider split was discarded after devolution, indicate that the market does not offer a royal road to perceptions of superior quality in the objective factors. Conversely, the more market-centred system can make progress in relation to the more subjective affectual factors.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors critically review the reform approach adopted in recent years, mainly centred on marginal legislative reforms in employment contracts, and propose a negotiating strategy in introducing reforms to increase social conflict.
Abstract: This article on the Italian case is based on recent trends in labour market reform. We critically review the reform approach adopted in recent years, mainly centred on marginal legislative reforms in employment contracts. The diffusion of flexible labour contracts, especially among the younger generations and women, together with a welfare system still based on employment seniority and job characteristics, have reinforced the segmentation of the Italian labour market and social inequalities. The absence of a negotiating strategy in introducing reforms has also increased social conflict. These trends ask for a comprehensive reform of the welfare system and for active policies to support labour market transitions, a reform which is increasingly considered in the current political debate.
TL;DR: The authors argue that EU integration and the transformation of post-communist Europe is a much more complex, volatile and uncertain process; not so much one of adaptation but more aquantum leap, apparently bypassing the stage of a Keynesian regime.
Abstract: While many academic accounts treat post-communist Europe as just another site of Europeanization with an emphasis on ‘adaptation’ and ‘learning’, this article argues that EU integration and the transformation of post-communist Europe is a much more complex, volatile and uncertain process; not so much one of adaptation but more a ‘quantum leap’, apparently bypassing the stage of a Keynesian regime. Post-communist Europe is asked to join an EU agenda that has many features of what Jessop calls the ‘Schumpeterian Workfare Postnational Regime’ (SWPR). In that sense, EU integration of post-communist welfare is not simply a ‘catch-up’, it is a complex transformation process whereby, rather than EU Enlargement and Eastern Europe being seen as a threat to ‘Social Europe’, the EU imposes its own ‘social deficit’ and economic hegemony onto Eastern Europe.
TL;DR: This paper examined the evolution of the program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) since 1996, and found that TANF was hailed as a tremendous success on both sides of the political spectrum, which explains why the new Republican administration (G. W. Bush became President in January 2001) wanted to build upon the existing programme.
Abstract: This article examines the evolution of the programme Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) since 1996. In 1996, the transformation of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) marked a watershed in American social policy. AFDC was the main US public assistance programme for single parents. By the mid-1990s, it was also the most unpopular social programme in the United States, which explained why Bill Clinton promised to ‘end welfare as we know it’ during his presidential campaign in 1996. TANF ended automatic individual entitlement to public assistance, established a five-year time limit for receiving cash assistance, and promoted a punitive approach towards welfare recipients, who were in theory increasingly required to work in exchange for benefits. This approach is known as the Work First Approach. Cash assistance was temporary, and granted as a favour to low-income mothers, who were required to comply with various behavioural requirements. TANF was hailed as a tremendous success on both sides of the political spectrum. This bipartisan consensus explains why the new Republican administration (G. W. Bush became President in January 2001) wanted to build upon the existing programme.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined commissioners' views of provider motivations in eight English local authorities and compared their perceived motivations with providers' expressed motivations, finding that private sector providers are significantly more motivated by personal income.
Abstract: Commissioning of social care for older people has seen major changes since the early 1990s. Considerable responsibility now rests with local authority staff, whose views of care home providers’ motivations, their perceived strengths and weaknesses as service providers, will have a bearing on commissioning decisions. We examine commissioners’ views of provider motivations in eight English local authorities and compare their perceived motivations with providers’ expressed motives. Data were collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with commissioners and care home providers. Providers are generally perceived by commissioners as highly altruistic, but also relatively financially motivated individuals. Further analysis revealed significantly different views towards profit-maximizing, which commissioners perceive as very important, while providers consider it to be of little motivational value. Private sector providers are described by commissioners as significantly more motivated by personal income. Associations are found between commissioners’ perceptions of motivations and the nature of their relationships with providers. Perceptions of providers’ motivations appear important within the commissioning framework.
TL;DR: Examination of reconfiguration at a rural maternity unit at Caithness General Hospital in Wick, Scotland, is examined and potential implications of media communication on public participation in policy decision-making are considered, suggesting that media portrayal of the public role in change may promote an adversarial rather than a participative stance.
Abstract: Public reaction to the UK's ongoing health sector reform often results in dilution of policy-makers’ goals. Public participation in health service decision-making is advocated in policy, but precisely how to do it and what role public opinion should have in formulating reform strategy is ambiguously described. Public opinion is formed through many influences, including media reporting. This paper examines how reconfiguration at a rural maternity unit at Caithness General Hospital in Wick, Scotland, was communicated in national and local media and considers potential implications of media communication on public participation in policy decision-making. Content analysis of arguments for and against change revealed a high level of reporting of commentators against change in regional newspapers. Qualitative analysis identified emergent themes about how maternity service reconfiguration was portrayed. These included framing opposition between management and local people, and change drivers receiving superficial coverage. Findings suggest that media portrayal of the public role in change may promote an adversarial rather than a participative stance. More finely tuned understanding of the relationship between the reporting of change and public reaction should be attained as this could affect how planned social policy evolves into actual practice.
TL;DR: The study argues that socio-cultural approaches to risk need to be better understood at the policy-making level and draws out the policy implications of the different elements of difference on financial planning.
Abstract: Current policy-making assumes people perceive and respond to financial risk in a uniform and rational way. This research sought to investigate whether social and cultural differences along the dimensions of disability, sexuality, faith and ethnicity influence attitudes to money and approaches to planning for possible financial risk eventualities. Eighty in-depth interviews with individuals committed to different faiths (Muslim and Christian), disabled people, gays, lesbians and bisexuals, and members of black and minority ethnic groups (black and Asian) were conducted in 2005/2006. Mainstream cultural reference points were dominant in respondents’ accounts; however, difference was also found to be more determining in some areas than has previously been documented. The article explores the impact of these relationships on financial planning and draws out the policy implications of the different elements of difference on financial planning. The study argues that socio-cultural approaches to risk need to be better understood at the policy-making level.
TL;DR: The authors examines the experience of low-income women on welfare in Australia and the process of seeking child support from a violent ex-partner, contrasting this with research from the United States and the United Kingdom.
Abstract: This article examines the experience of low-income women on welfare in Australia and the process of seeking child support from a violent ex-partner, contrasting this with research from the United States and the United Kingdom. Women in Australia who fear ongoing or renewed abuse as a result of seeking child support are eligible for an exemption. However, the exemption policy does not necessarily provide the intended protection of women and children from ongoing abuse and poverty. The exemption policy route also produces an unintended outcome whereby the perpetrators of violence are financially rewarded as they do not have to pay child support. These outcomes are shaped by a complex interaction of personal, cultural and structural forces that make the process of seeking child support for women who have experienced violence extremely problematic. The article demonstrates how in Australia, as in the US and UK policy contexts, the needs of women and their children are compromised by the details of policy specification and the way policies are implemented within the different systems.
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TL;DR: This article reviews the policy of ‘zero tolerance’ and the reasons for its introduction, the definition of violence that underpins it and how it has been measured, and assesses the evidence regarding prevalence.
Abstract: Doctors, nurses and other health care workers in the UK are said to be increasingly aware of the ‘risks of the job’ as a result of mounting verbal abuse, threats and assaults from patients and their relatives. In the late 1990s the UK government introduced a policy of ‘zero tolerance’, which it claimed was designed to minimize the risk of such violence. Current policy refers to the need to be tough on offenders and encourage a culture of respect. In this article we review this strategy and the reasons for its introduction and consider some of the potential consequences. The article starts with an account of the policy, the definition of violence that underpins it and how it has been measured, and assesses the evidence regarding prevalence. This is then interpreted in the context of wider policies of zero tolerance to crime, and debates about risk, anxiety and insecurity.
TL;DR: This article examined qualitative changes to key income security and social service programs in one central social policy domain (labor market policy) in three nations, the United States, Canada and Sweden, and found evidence of some degree of convergence in the broadest sense of the term across these three nations.
Abstract: ‘Convergence theorists’ suggest that domestic and/or global challenges and pressures are rendering welfare states broadly similar across national boundaries. ‘Resilience theorists’, in contrast, argue that a range of socio-political factors have allowed states to respond differentially to these pressures and maintain their distinct national social policy approaches. However, both research streams have addressed the ‘welfare state’ writ large in a multitude of nations and typically relied upon narrow, quantitative budgetary indicators. This study examines qualitative changes to key income security and social service programmes in one central social policy domain – labour market policy – in three nations, the United States, Canada and Sweden. It suggests that there is evidence of some degree of ‘convergence’ in the broadest sense of the term across these three nations. However, while both the USA and Canada have readily embraced genuinely neo-liberal restructuring, and become increasingly similar over the past two decades in this policy area, Sweden has managed to retain its distinctive social policy approach so far, despite notable changes, developments and trends. It also suggests that the character and direction of change may vary across and within policy domains in a single nation. The conclusion provides a discussion of universality, equality and solidarity, concepts that are commonly employed in accounts of welfare state change.
TL;DR: The counterpart city represents an attempt to conceptualize the hidden spaces inhabited by social problems and "problem" people who are counter to the mainstream, or included, modes of contemporary urban social life as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The counterpart city represents an attempt to conceptualize the hidden spaces inhabited by social problems and ‘problem’ people who are counter to the mainstream, or included, modes of contemporary urban social life. This ‘opposite’, or negative, space comprises the spatially withdrawn and socially excluded who are largely outside the purview of the comfortable classes of the same cities.Not only has residential segregation been sustained over recent decades, so too have mobile circuits of mutual exclusion been created, which enable higher-income groups to avoid the associated negative externalities of poverty (visibility, disorder, aggression and so on). As responsibility for dealing with social risks has become devolved to the level of the household, the desire for social evasion, as politicians, media systems and welfare patterns mark out threatening territories, has become more evident. The counterpart city is shunned in ever more elaborate ways and with the support of public policies. As the ‘spatial’ social policies, housing and urban, have become increasingly criminalized in the focus of their agendas, such interventions expend energy to facilitate this separation between affluent and poor. Traditional imperatives for public intervention are diminished as poverty has become more concealed from affluence – its costs and impacts evaded by technologies, socio-spatial circuits and policies that skirt those who are locked into places of poverty and abject marginality, a constellation of social forces and effects I term the great cut.