Vincent Dubois
This is a great book on welfare reform that shows how concrete organizational patterns determine huge political and policy issues. How does workfare really work? This volume addresses this question by looking at the actual practices in street-level welfare bureaucracies in the US, Europe, and Australia. This proves to be the best way to account for the widely shared but still very diverse policy orientations encapsulated under the motto of welfare-to-work. A must-read for all those interested in welfare politics, policy implementation and public administration.
Peter Hupe
Beyond policies on paper, this book tells the real story about workfare practices. The links made between macro-, meso- and micro-levels of analysis highlight unexpected aspects of what happens inside the welfare state.
R. Kent Weaver
This is a pathbreaking volume in joining together the literatures on street-level bureaucratic practice, new public management, and work-oriented welfare state policies in an international context. It is an important and compelling contribution to understanding how the welfare state is changing in the 21st century and the implications of these changes for our most vulnerable citizens.
Noah Zatz
This remarkable book brings together wide-ranging and deeply illuminating studies within a cohesive, powerful framework that links policy, practice, and politics in contemporary workfare states.
From the Publisher
"This is a great book on welfare reform that shows how concrete organizational patterns determine huge political and policy issues. How does workfare really work? This volume addresses this question by looking at the actual practices in street-level welfare bureaucracies in the US, Europe, and Australia. This proves to be the best way to account for the widely shared but still very diverse policy orientations encapsulated under the motto of welfare-to-work. A must-read for all those interested in welfare politics, policy implementation and public administration."—Vincent Dubois, professor, University of Strasbourg and Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, The University of Strasbourg, France
"In Western democracies change is sweeping over social policy and governance—contracting out, 'activation,' sanctions, performance measurement—while the poor struggle to support their families in an economy with fewer low-skilled, stable jobs. The contributors to Work and the Welfare State tell of the street-level workers negotiating the boundary between the increasingly indifferent state and the increasingly desperate and discouraged families they serve. Taken as a whole this book is a clear-eyed and comprehensive, if disheartening, look at the 'state of the welfare state' in the US, Europe, Britain, and Australia. "—Steven Maynard-Moody, professor, School of Public Affairs and Administration, University of Kansas
"Beyond policies on paper, this book tells the real story about workfare practices. The links made between macro-, meso- and micro-levels of analysis highlight unexpected aspects of what happens inside the welfare state."—Peter Hupe, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Visiting Fellow 2012-2013, All Souls College, Oxford
"Work and the Welfare State offers a richly textured and nuanced picture of workfare policies across the globe. The book provides a convincing argument for the importance of understanding the real world of workfare at street level, and an insightful analysis of the interrelation of workfare and the increasingly parsimonious and punitive nature of the business of public management."—Tony Evans, professor of social work, Royal Holloway University of London
"This is a superb volume providing the most comprehensive analysis of the operation of workfare globally from the standpoint of street-level bureaucracy. Brodkin and Marston masterfully weave together a picture of workfare that illustrates how the commonalities of workfare programs from different parts of the globe are transformed into very different practices as a result of the mediating effects of street-level organizations. Their focus on practice provides an unparalleled view of how workfare actually works. Work and the Welfare State is a thoughtful, innovative piece of scholarship that will inform a host of disciplines on the significance of an organization-centered approach to the investigation of how political and managerial factors translate policies and programs into practice."—Norma Riccucci, professor, Rutgers University, Newark
"This remarkable book brings together wide-ranging and deeply illuminating studies within a cohesive, powerful framework that links policy, practice, and politics in contemporary workfare states."—Noah Zatz, professor of law, UCLA Law School
"This is a pathbreaking volume in joining together the literatures on street-level bureaucratic practice, new public management, and work-oriented welfare state policies in an international context. It is an important and compelling contribution to understanding how the welfare state is changing in the 21st century and the implications of these changes for our most vulnerable citizens."—R. Kent Weaver, Georgetown University and The Brookings Institution
Norma Riccucci
This is a superb volume providing the most comprehensive analysis of the operation of workfare globally from the standpoint of street-level bureaucracy. Brodkin and Marston masterfully weave together a picture of workfare that illustrates how the commonalities of workfare programs from different parts of the globe are transformed into very different practices as a result of the mediating effects of street-level organizations. Their focus on practice provides an unparalleled view of how workfare actually works. Work and the Welfare State is a thoughtful, innovative piece of scholarship that will inform a host of disciplines on the significance of an organization-centered approach to the investigation of how political and managerial factors translate policies and programs into practice.
Tony Evans
Work and the Welfare State offers a richly textured and nuanced picture of workfare policies across the globe. The book provides a convincing argument for the importance of understanding the real world of workfare at street level, and an insightful analysis of the interrelation of workfare and the increasingly parsimonious and punitive nature of the business of public management.
Steven Maynard-Moody
In Western democracies change is sweeping over social policy and governance—contracting out, ‘activation,’ sanctions, performance measurement—while the poor struggle to support their families in an economy with fewer low-skilled, stable jobs. The contributors to Work and the Welfare State tell of the street-level workers negotiating the boundary between the increasingly indifferent state and the increasingly desperate and discouraged families they serve. Taken as a whole this book is a clear-eyed and comprehensive, if disheartening, look at the ‘state of the welfare state’ in the US, Europe, Britain, and Australia.
