scholarly journals Pedagogy of the consumer: The politics of neo-liberal welfare reform

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Wilkins
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Market Institutions ◽  
Disciplinary Practices ◽  
Global Impact ◽  
Conceptual Strategy ◽  
Pedagogy And Curriculum

Abstract Situated against the backdrop of a widespread and growing interest in the linkages between neo-liberalism and welfare, this paper introduces the lens of neo-liberalism as a conceptual strategy for thinking about contemporary issues in education policy. Through charting the historic rise of unfettered market institutions and practices in the context of 1980s England, it highlights the cultural and geopolitical specificity affixed to nation-based articulations and translations of neo-liberalism. Building on this perspective, it considers how market discourses with its pedagogyof the consumer shape a plurality of education sites and practices. To follow, it sets out the specific contributions by authors to this interdisciplinary collection of papers on the themed issue of neo-liberalism, pedagogy and curriculum. It identifies the contexts for their analyses and discusses the implications of their approaches for better mapping the ‘global’ impact of neo-liberalism on welfare states and peoples, specifically the full range of policy enactments and disciplinary practices shaping education customs of pedagogy and curriculum.

Religion, Class, and the Postwar Development of the Dutch Welfare State

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennie Oude Nijhuis
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Labor Union ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Christian Democracy ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Welfare Generosity ◽  
Post War ◽  
Distribution Of Income

This book examines how the Netherlands managed to create and maintain one of the world’s most generous and inclusive welfare systems despite having been dominated by Christian-democratic or ŸconservativeŒ, rather than socialist dominated governments, for most of the post-war period. It emphasizes that such systems have strong consequences for the distribution of income and risk among different segments of society and argues that they could consequently only emerge in countries where middle class groups were unable to utilize their key electoral and strong labor market position to mobilize against the adverse consequences of redistribution for them. By illustrating their key role in the coming about of solidaristic welfare reform in the Netherlands, the book also offers a novel view of the roles of Christian-democracy and the labor union movement in the development of modern welfare states. By highlighting how welfare reform contributed to the employment miracle of the 1990s, the book sheds new light on how countries are able to combine high levels of welfare generosity and solidarity with successful macro-economic performance.

Between government unilateralism and corporatist bargaining: public sector pension reforms in the UK and Ireland, 2000s–2010s

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-124
Author(s):  
Sung Ho Park
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Pension Reforms ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Unions ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Uk

AbstractStudies on welfare reform in advanced European countries have identified two established paths to welfare retrenchment: government unilateralism and corporatist bargaining. This study explores a more complicated path to welfare reform, wherein governments pursue ‘non-corporatist’ bargaining by actively combining features of unilateralism and negotiation. Such a hybrid case is explained by employing an ‘insider-outsider’ framework for public policy reform. The key argument is that the presence of exclusive insiders complicates the reform process, disqualifying both unilateralism and corporatist bargaining as feasible options for benefit cuts. The author demonstrates the validity of this claim by examining three cases of public sector pension retrenchment in the UK and Ireland during the 2000s and 2010s. Defying the common expectation that benefit cuts in residual welfare states would be promoted with government unilateralism, the public sector pension reforms in the UK and Ireland exhibited more complicated features which combined governments' unilateral initiatives andad hocnegotiations with public sector unions. Future studies may build on this finding to examine hybrid reform cases in a general European context.

What's Globalization Got to Do with It? Economic Interdependence and the Future of European Welfare States

2006 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Hay
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Models ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Usa ◽  
State Regime ◽  
European Welfare States ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractThe appeal to globalization as a non-negotiable external economic constraint plays an increasingly significant role in the linked politics of expectation suppression and welfare reform in contemporary Europe. Yet, although it threatens to become something of a self- fulfilling prophecy, the thesis that globalization entails welfare retrenchment and convergence is empirically suspect. In this paper it is argued that there is little evidence of convergence amongst European social models and that, although common trajectories can be identified, these have tended to be implemented more or less enthusiastically and at different paces to produce, to date, divergent outcomes. Second, I suggest that it is difficult to see globalization as the principal agent determining the path on which European social models are embarked since the empirical evidence points if anything to de-globalization rather than globalization. The implications of this for the future of the welfare state in Europe and for the USA as a model welfare state regime are explored.

Incorporating Hope and Positivity Into Educational Policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dante D. Dixson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Student Achievement ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Educational Policies ◽  
Student Mental Health ◽  
Disciplinary Practices ◽  
Improved Outcomes ◽  
American Students

American students are underachieving relative to the nation’s investment in education. One explanation may be the lack of hope and positivity within America’s educational policies. These constructs predict student achievement and improved outcomes in several crisis areas that current educational policy has neglected (e.g., student mental health and school disciplinary practices). Moreover, educational policy can easily incorporate hope and positivity. First, schools can leverage several already-developed, effective, and scalable hope and positivity-based interventions. Second, educational policy can target hope and positivity-based constructs (e.g., student well-being) or incorporate their principles (e.g., focusing on student strengths) in education policy directed at solving problems. Given the evidence, policymakers should leverage hope and positivity in future educational policy.

Afterword: Welfare State Reform, Recognition and Emotional Labor

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 487-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlie Hochschild
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Emotional Labor ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
State Reform ◽  
Government Aid ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Welfare State Reform ◽  
Do So

In this themed section, the editors and authors take us far beyond the usual thinking about welfare reform. How, they ask, do politicians want us to feel about welfare reform? How do we think we should feel and how do we feel about it? How does the disabled woman who has lost her government-provided caregiver and ‘hasn't been out of the house since Christmas’, feel about it? Or the man who petitions to restore his lost government aid – but fails to do so? Or the wealthy Dutch tax payer? These are are the sorts of questions that arise in the study of a changing welfare states.

INTERPRETING WORKERS' RESISTANCE TO WELFARE "REFORM"

2002 ◽  
Vol 36 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 113-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
FUNG YI CHAN ◽  
SHUK FAN CHU
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Grant Proposal ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Lump Sum ◽  
The Government ◽  
Management Groups ◽  
Looking Back

This article presents and analyses the background to the resistance of many frontline welfare practitioners against the recent introduction of reforms to the welfare management and subvention system and process in Hong Kong. The "progress" discourse optimistically engaged in by the government is challenged by a rather pessimistic assessment by workers, accompanied by a strong critique of the compromises welfare management groups have agreed to when accepting the Lump Sum Grant proposal. The context of the reform is interpreted as a strategic repositioning by the post-1997 government, intent at rebuilding its legitimacy and re-assigning the role of the welfare sector within its vision for the future. In the course of a long conversation between the two authors, one an academic, the other a core organiser in the "Alliance for the Protection of Welfare" several important areas of discourse were touched upon: the nature of welfare and its normative underpinning; social workers' struggle to relocate themselves within the emerging managerial paradigm; the search for an environment in which dialogue between the various parties would allow open negotiation about a more positive reform of the welfare system. The relationships among workers, management, government and service users are interpreted within a historical perspective, looking back at the constitution of the problem on both the level of Hong Kong as well as, more theoretically, on the level of (Western) welfare states. 近日香港政府提出社会福利管理及津助制度的「改革」，受到前线同工大力反对。 本文旨在勾画出相关的背景脉络，以助了解同工的「悲 观」判断怎样质疑官方铺陈的乐观「进步」论，及批评管理阶层在接纳一笔过拨款上的妥协态度， 展示当中蕴含的重要议题。 改革的背景被理解作九七后特区政权的策略性再定位，在新的发展远景下以重建管治的合法性，亦重新厘订社会福利的角色。 本篇文稿是由学院成员与「捍卫社会福利大联盟」的组织者合撰，透过真诚的详谈，尝试剖析以下范畴： 福利的性质及价值规范、 在管理典范逐渐形成下前线社会工作员的挣扎、 及寻求一个有利对话的环境，以促进开放的态度磋商较具积极意义的福利改革。 在探讨前线同工、 管理阶层、 政府及服务使用者的多角关系时，更从历史的进程思考如何构成现今的问题， 当中涉及香港的独特环境及西方社会福利国家的理念性讨论。

Introduction: social investments and welfare reform in Europe and East Asia

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Timo Fleckenstein ◽  
Soohyun Christine Lee ◽  
Young Jun Choi
Keyword(s):  
Social Issue ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Investment Strategies ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
The World ◽  
Cautionary Tales

This chapter brings together leading experts from across two world regions, Europe and East Asia, to discuss social investment strategies — currently one of the most influential policy approaches around the world. It tackles some of the key challenges faced by contemporary welfare states — namely greater social inequality and the decline in social mobility. By inviting a number of authors to address the same social issue using different country cases (rather than just examining cases side by side), the chapter not only deepens our understanding of varieties of social investment strategies, but also discusses how some of the drawbacks connected to social investment may be overcome. The chapter shows that, despite remarkable differences, at the level of the problems associated with social investment measures, the countries studied also show significant similarities. Ultimately, it presents the case studies of East Asian countries which provide important lessons for benchmarking or cautionary tales for more established Western welfare states as well as the emerging welfare geography in the Global South.

The English-Speaking Countries

2021 ◽  
pp. 862-880
Author(s):  
Francis G. Castles ◽  
Christopher Pierson
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
The United States ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Market Institutions ◽  
Health Care Reforms ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
State Experience ◽  
The Welfare State

This chapter considers the extent to which it is possible to speak of a commonality in the welfare state experience of English-speaking welfare states (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States). At one level, the expectation that these tend to be comparatively small, low-spending, market-focused (‘liberal’) welfare states proves to be true. But, upon closer inspection, that commonality tends to break down. Some have been more redistributive than others and the Antipodean cases (Australia and New Zealand) with distinctive labour market institutions suggest the possibility of a different way of managing distributional outcomes. The widely canvassed US ‘exceptionalism’ proves to be true to some extent, though less so after Obama’s health-care reforms. In the wake of the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, both commonalities and differences remained.

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