Making occupations possible? Critical narrative analysis of social assistance in Ontario, Canada

Abstract

ABSTRACT Social assistance is a program created to alleviate extreme poverty by providing payments to people with little or no income. It has been heavily criticized due to the conflicting nature of its two main objectives, alleviating poverty and promoting self-sufficiency. The purposes of this research were to present a richly textured account of the lived experience of persons receiving social assistance in Ontario, Canada and to explore how their occupational possibilities are influenced by broader social contexts and policy. We used critical narrative analysis, which combines hermeneutic phenomenology with critical theory, to interrogate the data from a governmentality perspective. We uncovered common aspects of participant experiences related to the social system, the community, and individual factors and demonstrated tensions created by neoliberalism: the Neoliberal Paradox, the Welfare-to-Work Paradox, and the Caseworker Paradox. Social assistance recipients lack the opportunity and resources to make everyday choices and to have decision-making power as they participate in occupations. Through a better understanding of the social and political processes that create social assistance, while considering the lived experience of its recipients, occupational scientists will be better able to identify and rectify occupational injustices for people living in poverty.