Australian government Mutual Obligations welfare policies, key features of contemporary Australian welfare reforms are the focus of this study. The subjectivities of poor and working class young women and girls and the subject positions made available to them through Mutual Obligations policies are focal points. A key concern is, 'How do Mutual Obligations policies, their texts, discourses and implementation strategies construct the subjectivities of Australian poor and working class young women and girls?' This study asks what subject positions are made available by the policy, how policy discourses are taken up and enacted by policy subjects, and enquires after the lived effects of government policies. / thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2004.

The juxtaposition of doing ‘more with less’, and ‘being privileged to be a community welfare worker’ gives some indication of the anomalies present in how community welfare work is conceived and manifested. The original contribution of this thesis is to provide further knowledge and understanding of the nature, level and extent of paucity management models to inform the way that community welfare services are delivered in rural communities. Paucity management relates to the way that managers identify and utilise strategies to counter the anomaly of possessing a deep philosophical underpinning in the value of community work, with the lack of means to meet all the needs and expectations of community members. Fifteen managers from the Central West Region of New South Wales in Australia were asked to share work narratives about the way their activities contributed to sustaining their communities. The research confirms yet again that community services are delivered strategically in spite of, or because of, a resource poor environment that is mainly punctuated by the non-availability of ever-decreasing funds. New ways of seeking resources has resulted in managers and workers navigating competing priorities at ground level, with trying to balance the tensions implicit in a directive provider-purchaser work dynamic that has seen the evolvement of the hybrid government organisation. This qualitative research used a phenomenographic approach to collect the managers’ stories. Data collection methods included individual interviews, focus group discussions, as well as further consultative communication. A complex theoretical framework, incorporating ideas from paucity management, aspects of structuration, and chaos/ complexity, was used to analyse the data through a structure of awareness of variation in the managers’ experiences. The findings show that community welfare managers do work in a resource poor environment, do acknowledge the presence of paucity management, and do address the limit-situations of service delivery through different, but complimentary, paucity management models that are creative, pragmatic, communicatively competent, and ‘auto-managed’. Their combined narrative gives a clearer understanding of the style of management that the managers used, as well as some of the strategies that contributed to ‘chameleon qualities’ of management. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Australian government Mutual Obligations welfare policies, key features of contemporary Australian welfare reforms are the focus of this study. The subjectivities of poor and working class young women and girls and the subject positions made available to them through Mutual Obligations policies are focal points. A key concern is, 'How do Mutual Obligations policies, their texts, discourses and implementation strategies construct the subjectivities of Australian poor and working class young women and girls?' This study asks what subject positions are made available by the policy, how policy discourses are taken up and enacted by policy subjects, and enquires after the lived effects of government policies. / thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2004.

Thesis (M.S.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1940.

Thesis (M.S.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1940.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Title from title screen. Wendy Simonds, committee chair; Ralph LaRossa, Charles A. Gallagher, committee members. Electronic text (289 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed June 19, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 246-275).

The research project herein contained was an outgrowth of concern associated with performance levels placed upon Welfare Assistance Workers (WAW’s). The Oregon State Public Welfare Division has become increasingly concerned with accuracy rates among branch offices throughout the system. It was the impression of the research group that WAW’s see this increased concern as combined pressure to reduce error rates and demand for a broader diversity of skills. The primary purpose of this study was to explore ways of clarifying individual characteristics and work habits and their relationship to error rates in the WAW’s in the East Multnomah County Branch of PWD. Our hypothesis was that a relationship exists among individual personality characteristics, work practices, and error rates. A secondary purpose of the study was to develop a conceptual framework which might suggest methods of personal management or employment screening for WAW positions.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2008. / A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographies.

"The problem of this study is to determine whether or not the financial grants available under the Texas state program of aid to dependent children are adequate to meet the needs of the persons receiving such grants. In accomplishing this objective, it became necessary to make a survey of the Texas state program of aid to dependent children as administered by the Texas State Department of Public Welfare. The basis upon which aid is granted, the amount of grants available, and a study of legislation governing the state program of aid to dependent children will be given prominence in this investigation. Likewise, a somewhat detailed study of twenty families who are recipients, or who have recently been recipients of aid to dependent children, all located in Erath County, Texas, will be presented as typical representations of such families all over the state of Texas who receive grants of aid for dependent children."-- leaf 1.

This dissertation examines the nature of states' choice of AFDC benefit levels in order to determine the sources of interstate variations in AFDC benefits. Like previous studies, a state's financial and demographic characteristics are modeled as playing a significant role in the benefit choice. This study extends the literature by also formally modeling the role of the financial and demographic characteristics of a neighboring, or rival, state. The characteristics of another state are expected to influence the state's benefit choice for the following reason. Each state wishes to provide some minimum living standard for its citizens (the AFDC benefit level). The provision of this minimum living standard costs the state not only in terms of the dollar value of the offered benefit, but also in terms of increased total financial obligations if the chosen benefit level attracts recipients from the rival state. Each state, therefore, accounts for this "caseload" price of the benefit level by incorporating the level of interstate migration induced by any feasible benefit level, taking that of the rival as given, into its benefit decision. This interstate AFDC benefit-setting competition is modeled as a two state generalized game. The model's implication are derived and empirically testeµ. The results of the empirical tests support the game theoretic model; The observed pattern of interstate variations in the AFDC benefit level is consistent with the model's implications. The data further suggest that the degree of competitiveness, as indicated by the significance of the rival's characteristics in a state's benefit decision, varies inversely with the distance between the competing states. The model is then used to simulate the impact of the "New Federalism" proposal on the AFDC benefit level. These simulations indicate that, if enacted, the proposed "New Federalism" changes will significantly lower the average per recipient AFDC benefit level. The simulations also indicate that the greater the degree of competition between the states, the larger will be the magnitude of the decline in the benefit level. / Ph. D.