Welfare State Restructuring Research Articles

Welfare-through-work and the re-regulation of labour markets in Denmark

This paper is positioned within theoretical perspectives that focus on welfare states as systems of power and negotiation between key social forces acting in and through the state apparatus. Despite an emerging consensus that UK welfare-state restructuring is deeply problematic, there appears to be reluctance, within the debate, to discuss viable alternatives to neoliberalism. In contrast to UK and North American strategies, Denmark has adopted a ‘welfare- through-work’ model, built around a more inclusive system of welfare reform. This article discusses its emergence, and focuses on the importance of Job Rotation as its leading-edge socio-economic strategy. It highlights recent conflicts and tensions within Job Rotation and, lastly, suggests lessons for the UK.

More responsibility, less control: psychiatric survivors and Welfare State restructuring

This paper is concerned with the implications of recent Welfare State restructuring for psychiatric survivors' citizenship status. Using the Province of Ontario as a case study, the paper examines the extent to which recent change in mental health care and social assistance programs has worked to facilitate or constrain survivors' ability to exercise control over their lives. Despite recognition of the importance of survivors' participation in the mental health care system in the late 1980s, recent years have seen a return to a more traditional treatment paradigm characterized by professional control. Concurrently, restructuring of social assistance programs has led to a decline in the real value of income supports and growing pressure on informal support networks. As a result, psychiatric survivors are increasingly held responsible for their own material well‐being and public conduct, but are less able to exercise control within everyday life.

Whatever happened to local government?: local labour market policy in the UK and Denmark

English This article builds on the emerging body of work concerned with local state restructuring under New Labour. Set within the context of labour market and welfare state restructuring, we suggest that there is an emerging consensus for a more robust and proactive involvement by local government. The article argues that initiatives for reactivating the local state have been deployed and tested in Denmark, with local government playing a central role in socioeconomic governance. The article unpacks what we term Denmark's ‘welfare-through-work’ model – a policy-making system built around negotiated and inclusive systems of regulation and governance – and then highlights some lessons for re-engaging local authorities in the UK.

Between neoliberalism and cultural conservatism: spatial divisions and multiplications of hospice labor in the United States

This article offers a critical geographic understanding of hospice work in Seattle Washington, and the US generally. It highlights the spatial divisions of labor between home and institutions in hospice care, as well as divisions within the home (where the majority of hospice occurs). It further shows how these divisions produce multiplications of labor for women carers in the home. I interpret these divisions and multiplications of labor as manifestations of neoliberal welfare state restructuring. A certain cultural conservatism, however, is also potentially reproduced by these geographies. These interpretations situate hospice work in a social theoretical context, and look beyond neoliberalism as the singular rightward keel of social policy.

The Anthropology of Welfare “Reform”: New Perspectives on U.S. Urban Poverty in the Post-Welfare Era

▪ Abstract Anthropological research on welfare restructuring differs from most poverty research conducted by U.S. policy analysts and many other social scientists by its situating the study of welfare “reform” within an examination of the production of poverty and inequality at the center of the global system of advanced capitalism. In this review we examine urban poverty and welfare-state restructuring in relation to the ascent of neoliberalism, including the rise of market-oriented assumptions about social value, productivity, and investment that dominate civic life and public policy. We focus primarily, though not exclusively, on the United States. After a brief review of four theoretical frameworks that inform ethnographic research on welfare, we explore five approaches or themes in anthropological studies of welfare restructuring in the United States: (a) the ethnographic challenge to claims of policy success by documenting an unfolding crisis in social reproduction for the poor; (b) deconstructing the hegemonic discourse on welfare restructuring and juxtaposing it with the lived realities of impoverished households; (c) contesting and moving beyond the behaviorism of mainstream poverty research; (d) exploring the multiple perspectives of those differently situated within the welfare-state apparatus; and (e) theorizing the relationship between welfare restructuring and an eroding social citizenship of the poor. The analysis of gender, race, and, to a lesser extent, class is central to ethnographic research on welfare-state restructuring.

Social Care in Crisis: Gender, Demography, and Welfare State Restructuring in Japan

Social Care in Crisis: Gender, Demography, and Welfare State Restructuring in Japan

Child Care Policy at the Crossroads: Gender and Welfare State Restructuring

Child Care Policy at the Crossroads: Gender and Welfare State Restructuring

Coping with Permanent Austerity: Welfare State Restructuring in Affluent Democracies

Paul Pierson : Die Umstrukturierung der Sozialversicherung der fortschrittlichen Gesellschaften in Zeiten der Budgetdisziplin. ; ; Die fortschrittlichen Industriegesellschaften sind immer grosserem Druck zur Reform ihrer Sozialversicherungssysteme ausgesetzt, obwohl die Sozialprogramme allgemein eine grosse politische Unterstutzung finden. Reformpolitiken mussen einerseits die Widerstandsfahigkeit der Sozialeinrichtungen, andererseits die permanente Ausgabendisziplin des Umfeldes berucksichtigen und richten daher allgemein ihre Bemuhungen auf die Erstellung von weitgreifenden Koalitionen aus, mit dem Zweck, den ausgereiften Wohlfahrtsstaat zwar nicht auseinanderzunehmen, sondern ihn eher umzubtrukturieren. Zum Verstandnis der Reformdynamik mussen zunachst die Dimensionen genau unterschieden werden, die der Reform zugrundeliegen und daruber hinaus die spezifibchen institutionellen und politischen Vereinbarungen berucksichtigt werden, die in jedem der Sozialschutzregime vorhanden sind, ob sie liberal, konservativ, korporativ oder sozialdemokratisch sind sondern ihn eher umzubtrukturieren. Zum Verstandnis der Reformdynamik mussen zunachst die Dimensionen genau unterschieden werden, die der Reform zugrundeliegen und daruber hinaus die spezifibchen institutionellen und politischen Vereinbarungen berucksichtigt werden, die in jedem der Sozialschutzregime vorhanden sind, ob sie liberal, konservativ, korporativ oder sozialdemokratisch sind

GLOBALIZATION, WELFARE STATE RESTRUCTURING, AND URBAN HOMELESSNESS IN GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES

Growing economic globalization has increased the numbers of poor and homeless people in most post-industrial societies, putting tremendous pressure on the corresponding welfare states. The United States has responded to these processes with neoliberal policies that dismantle and devolve the welfare state, causing harm to poor and homeless people. Germany, in contrast, has maintained a more comprehensive welfare state to support poor and homeless people despite severe economic pressures following unification and a more internationally connected economy. The purpose of this paper is to compare welfare-state restructuring in both countries in the context of the problem of homelessness. I argue that for reasons associated with its political system, ideology, and economy, Germany has, to date, resisted major welfare-state restructuring and is likely to continue to do so. This suggests that neoliberal policies are not the inevitable result of globalization, and therefore contestable policy decisions. [Key words: globalization, welfare state restructuring, homelessness, Germany, United States.]

Still Friendly: Danish Women and Welfare State Restructuring

Still Friendly: Danish Women and Welfare State Restructuring

BAKER, Maureen and David TIPPEN, POVERTY, SOCIAL ASSISTANCE, AND THE EMPLOYABILITY OF MOTHERS: RESTRUCTURING WELFARE STATES

BAKER, Maureen and David TIPPEN, POVERTY, SOCIAL ASSISTANCE, AND THE EMPLOYABILITY OF MOTHERS: RESTRUCTURING WELFARE STATES, Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press, 1999, 316 pp., $24.95 softcover / $60.00 hardcover. Reviewed by: MELINDA MILLS The rhetoric of welfare state restructuring such as `reduction of the public debt', `cutting costs of social programs' or `getting people back to work' to `encourage independence' has crept into media, political, and policy debates in many industrialised countries. When searching for ways to cope with rising costs and structural changes that coincide with greater economic globalization, predominance of market capitalism and labour-market flexibility, governments have turned to the reduction of benefits of certain groups of individuals who are viewed as 'abusing' the welfare system, such as long term beneficiaries, which often include low income mothers with young children. The subsequent adoption of neo-liberal terminology signals a focus on efficiency, cost-effectiveness, lowering public expenditures and providing 'incentives' to work, with the state positioned as a residual player or `last resort', leaving responsibility to the individual and thus downplaying structural barriers to employment. The ability to sell unpalatable cuts and reforms to the public has meant a transformation of rhetoric via the introduction of seemingly positive phrases such as `employability enhancement incentives' or punitive and moralistic terms, like 'dependency'. Baker and Tippin take on this timely topic by focusing on the restructuring of social programs for low-income mothers in the four liberal welfare regimes of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, The first chapter sets the stage for the book followed by a gendered theoretical approach to welfare state restructuring in chapter 2. The next four chapters explore the process of reform in each country outlining a brief history of social program development for low-income mothers, justification of restructuring, and the interaction between social policies and programs with political structures, pressure group activities and economic and labour-market shifts. The final chapter provides a summary of welfare-state restructuring and the 'poverty of employability'. Baker and Tippin offer several new insights to this field of research, which are presented with both elegance and evidence. First, they successfully introduce a long overdue gendered approach to welfare state restructuring, which is a highly effective combination of feminist and political-economy perspectives that remains clearly rooted in the study of inequality. For instance, our attention is drawn to the striking absence of acknowledgement of women's diverse needs and circumstances in androcentfic documents. …

What explains public service restructuring? Evaluating contending explanations

This article assesses the explanatory power of two prominent accounts of welfare state restructuring in the area of public sector reform. Paul Pierson's work is studied as an example of the politician-constituent framework, and contrasted with a coalitional approach to welfare state restructuring. A general theoretical critique is put forward, and the theoretical frameworks are evaluated in the light of case studies of public service sector restructuring in Finland and Sweden. The coalitional approach is rejected because no evidence is found of significant divergence in the attitudes and goals of exposed and sheltered sector trade unions regarding public services. Instead, it is argued that public sector cuts resulted from decreased local tax revenue and central government determination to reduce budget deficits. Public and trade union protest was limited owing to the delayed and uncertain impact of the cuts. In essence, therefore, the article adheres to Pierson's account of the logic of welfare state restructuring.

Contracting opportunities: interpreting post-asylum geographies of mental health care in Auckland, New Zealand

In New Zealand, the process of deinstitutionalisation is continuing to unfold as a specific manifestation of welfare state restructuring rather than as a discrete process within the health care sector. In this paper we consider the geography of mental health care in Auckland, New Zealand’s only metropolitan city. Here, a highly fluid and competitive housing market has profoundly (re)shaped the opportunities for community care. We report on findings from a survey of representatives of the key agencies providing mental health care in central Auckland. We argue that the re-placing of mental health care into the community has often involved the separation of residential and treatment issues, to the detriment of the communities, institutions and (especially) individuals involved. We trace this fragmentation back to the primacy of the ideology of restructuring over the philosophy of deinstitutionalisation. We build our argument around a discussion of the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992 and the apparent subordination of the Act to the emerging of a ‘contract state’ and broader legislation, such as the Resource Management Act 1991, the Privacy Act 1992 and the Commerce Act 1986, which underpins the re-regulation of New Zealand society.

Book Review: Social Care and Welfare State Restructuring in Europe

Book Review: Social Care and Welfare State Restructuring in Europe

Gender Down Under: Welfare State Restructuring in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand

Beginning in the mid‐1980s, the governments of both Australia and New Zealand embarked upon programmes of economic reform. In the same period, they have also undertaken extensive, if incremental, restructuring of their social policy gender models, away from the male breadwinner family form and towards dual‐earner partnerships based on individualized entitlement. This paper examines and compares this restructuring. It aims to identify those respects in which similarities and differences in this restructuring express enduring cross‐national differences in social policy, and in what respects simply reflect differences in the timing of otherwise similar developments.

Housing management matters: Citizenship and managerialism in the new welfare market

This paper addresses three neglected issues in the restructuring of housing policy and provision in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s: first, the relationship between welfare restructuring and management regimes; second, the nature of local variations in the impact of welfare restructuring; and third, the significance of human agency interpretations of change. The paper starts by summarizing the main features of welfare state restructuring and then considers recent manifestations of citizenship and managerialism in housing. Three competing conceptions of citizenship rights are used to examine changing notions of welfare: “market efficiency”, “institutionalized rights” and the “radical challenge” provided by social movements. A four-part typology of the main concepts and themes in the “new public management”—“efficiency”, “downsizing and decentralization”, “excellence” and “public service”—is used to present the main components of change in management regimes. The paper draws on literatures on housing management, citizenship and “the new public management” and on recent research into tenant participation, housing rights and housing advice services. Conclusions are drawn about how tensions between different conceptions of citizenship and public management are implicated with national and global influences at the local level to create particular welfare outcomes.

Towards a Schumpeterian workfare postnational regime: path-shaping and path-dependency in Danish welfare state reform

The present article offers an analysis of the dialectics of path-shaping and path-dependency in relation to recent Danish reforms which appear to bring us from the Keynesian welfare national state to a Schumpeterian workfare postnational regime. It provides a brief outline of the theoretical framework for understanding the restructruation of the Danish welfare state along these lines of though, and describes and characterizes the recent reforms in the ficld of cconomic and social policy. To explain this particular formulation, choice and implementaion of the Danish restructuration strategy the article provides an heuristic account of the dialectics of path-shaping and path-depending. The conclusion reflects on possiblities for future research into the intricacies of welfare state restructuring.

A Threat to Social Security? the Impact of Eu Membership on the Finnish Welfare State

In the fifth year of membership of the EU, the Finnish welfare state shows no serious signs of erosion. Furthermore, the changes that have taken place in Finnish social policies are largely due to factors separate from EU and EMU membership. As the extent and the effects of EU social policy are very limited and as EU social policy does not for the most part fall within the traditional definition of social policy (a structure of transfers and services aimed at redistribution among the entire population), this article focuses mainly on the indirect effects of EU and EMU membership, on Finnish social policies. This article argues that while social policy restructuring was frequently explained and justified by politicians on the grounds of EU membership, and while central decisionmakers were obviously very determined to meet the convergence criteria, the pressures to fulfil certain macroeconomic criteria, similar to the convergence criteria, would have existed in the absence of any intention to join the EU. The main motives for welfare state restructuring were the recession that eroded the financial basis of the welfare state, and the changed rules of macroeconomic management that rendered a number of economic and social policy responses to economic crises redundant. Furthermore, the logic and details of social policy restructuring can only be understood in the light of domestic social policy structures, institutions, and political legacies.2 The article first describes the changes that have taken place in Finnish social policy in the 1990s; then examines the expected and actual social policy consequences of EU and EMU; and concludes by emphasizing the role of domestic actors as agents of Europeanization. The Finnish welfare state has not undergone systemic change as a result of the restructuring in the 1990s. Finland continues to have a distinctly encompassing model of social provision. The universal character of certain benefits has been eliminated (the national pension and basic sickness benefit) but the impact of this on benefit recipients has not been great.3 Earnings-related benefits continue to provide income replacement at a relatively high level and hence discourage private insurances. Benefits of last resort are now more tightly means-tested, but they still prevent increases in poverty rates effectively. International statistics show that Finland is still one of the world leaders in welfare expenditure (OECD Economic Surveys, Finland, 1998; OECD Economies at a Glance, Structural Indicators, 1996; OECD Historical Statistics, 1997). Relatively equal income distribution, low poverty rates, world-class standards in public services, and many other facts testify to the robust health of the Finnish welfare state (Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, 1996a: 96; Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, 1998a: 5; 1998b: 12). This is particularly impressive in the light of the extremely heavy pressures put on the social EUROPEAN BRIEFING