1. `Work-Welfare' and the Regulation of the Poor: The Pessimism of Post-Structuralism.
- Author
-
Mizen, Phil
- Subjects
- *
POSTSTRUCTURALISM , *DISCIPLINARY power , *SOCIAL classes , *POOR people , *PUBLIC welfare - Abstract
The article reports that through a concern with disciplinary power, post-structuralists have recently turned their attention to the discursive force of welfare in constituting the poor as docile and subservient populations. Using the recent example of 'work-welfare' in Britain, the pessimism of this position is rejected by pointing to the continuing importance of resistance and opposition, while considering their wider significance for the analysis of welfare provision. With the apparent failure of welfare statism, the inability of collectivism to withstand the current phase of welfare retrenchment and the growing influence of the new social movements and the voices from the margins, post-modernism and post-structuralism have been embraced as offering new ways of thinking about welfare and social policy. The post-structuralist claim to represent a new radical agenda for the analysis of social welfare provision is considerably less impressive, however, when positioned in relation to wider developments in radical thought.
- Published
- 1998
- Full Text
- View/download PDF