Contestation and Accommodation: Constructions of Lone Mothers’ Subjectivity Through Workfare Discourse and Practice

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which dominant discourses about poor lone mothers are both contested and accommodated among three groups of actors within the workfare system in Toronto, Canada. Drawing on qualitative data from a national research project on lone mothers and social assistance, the authors examine and analyze how lone mothers construct their own subjectivity, as well as how it is constructed by workers in state-contracted nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that deliver job-readiness and related workfare programs and by welfare workers who assess and administer welfare benefits.