Workfare States

by Peck, Jamie

• ISBN13: 9781572306363
• ISBN10: 157230636X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-02-13
• Publisher: The Guilford Press

Summary

This book examines the political economy of workfare, the umbrella term for welfare-to-work initiatives that have been steadily gaining ground since candidate Bill Clinton's 1992 promise to "end welfare as we know it." Peck traces the development, diffusion, and implementation of workfare policies in the United States, and their export to Canada and the UK. He explores how reforms have been shaped by labor markets and political conditions, how gender and race come into play, and how local programs fit into the broader context of neoliberal economics and globalization. The book cogently demonstrates that workfare rarely involves large-scale job creation, but is more concerned with deterring welfare claims and necessitating the acceptance of low-paying, unstable jobs. Integrating labor market theory, critical policy analysis, and extensive field research, Peck exposes the limitations of workfarism and points toward more equitable alternatives.

Author Biography

Jamie Peck is Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin/n-/Madison, having previously worked for more than 10 years at the University of Manchester, England. He is the author of Work-Place: The Social Regulation of Labor Markets, and has published widely on issues relating to economic restructuring, employment policy, urban political economy, and theories of regulation and governance. Since the early 1980s, Jamie Peck has also been involved in policy research and advocacy in the areas of job-training strategies, local economic development, and measures to combat unemployment. His future plans include work on contingent labor and the restructuring of low-wage labor markets in U.S. cities.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
List of Figures and Tables	xiii
List of Abbreviations	xv
Acknowledgments	xvii
Introduction	1	(30)
States of Workfare
Defining Workfare	9	(7)
Transnationalizing Workfare	16	(5)
Workfarist Labor Regulation	21	(3)
Plan of the Book	24	(7)
Part I ROOTS OF WORKFARE
Regulation	31	(52)
Workhouse/Welfare/Workfare
Relief and Regulation	34	(5)
Regulating Labor	39	(19)
Spaces of Regulation	58	(19)
Situating Workfare	77	(6)
Workfare	83	(46)
What Does It Mean?
Words of Workfare	84	(6)
(Re)defining Workfare	90	(7)
Reading Clinton's Lips	97	(6)
Costly Rhetoric	103	(8)
The Quiet Revolution	111	(6)
The Politics of ``Disentitlementarianism''	117	(12)
Part II SPACES OF WORKFARE
Postwelfare States?	129	(39)
Geopolitics of ``Reform''
Locating Massachusetts	131	(2)
Making New-Style Workfare	133	(10)
Massachusetts's After-Welfare Settlement	143	(18)
Making Space for the Workfare State?	161	(7)
Local Discipline	168	(45)
Workfare at Work
The Method and the Message	172	(10)
Work-First Labor Regulation	182	(8)
Selling Riverside: Discourse and Practice	190	(7)
Workfare versus the Cities	197	(4)
Go to Work, or Else: Toward ``True'' Workfare	201	(12)
Part III ECHOES OF WORKFARE
Canada's Path	213	(48)
Permeable Welfare/Fragile Workfare
Toward Continental Workfare?	215	(7)
Permeable Fordism and Permeable Welfare	222	(14)
In and Against Ontario's Workfare State	236	(17)
Beyond the Safety Net	253	(8)
Another New Deal	261	(80)
Workfare, United Kingdom Style
Creeping Compulsion: Conservative Incrementalism	264	(10)
Radical Consensus: Ending Beveridge	274	(18)
Exploring Local Workfare	292	(7)
Making a New Deal: The New Labour Program	299	(27)
Britain's Winding Path to Workfare	326	(15)
Conclusion	341	(28)
Workfare States?
Functions of Workfare	350	(8)
Geopolitics of Workfare	358	(11)
References	369	(30)
Index	399	(15)
About the Author	414