At the same time as the European Union’s (EU) influence has grown, path-breaking changes in Sweden’s social policy characteristics have appeared. Previous research gives contradictory evidence on whether and how these developments relate, and it remains unknown to what extent the EU contributed to the changes observed in Sweden.  By operationalising four theories on the mechanisms of social policy change (institutionalism, power resources approach, new politics, and new social risks), using the EU as a driving force, and two diverging policy developments as outcomes, this thesis cast the net wider than previous research and applies process tracing methods to a selection of 339 policy documents to answer: (i) How has Europeanisation affected unemployment policy and family policy in Sweden, 1990- 2019? (ii) To what extent can Europeanisation sufficiently explain the retrenchment in unemployment policy while family policies were expanded in the same period of time?  I find no support for the mechanisms of institutionalism and new politics, limited support for new social risk, and mixed support for the power resource approach explaining the Europeanisation of Swedish social policy. Although I found empirical support for parts of several, I conclude that no theory can sufficiently explain the complete causal chain of how the EU influence the two Swedish policy outcomes.

<p>Since Ontario Works (OW) was implemented in 1998, the policy has been tinkered with including making changes in benefits and relaxing of some of the more punitive practices such as a life time ban for recipients convicted of fraud. However in OW, one ofOntario's social assistance programs, the requirement to participate in work or work preparation activities, remains relatively unchanged. Intended to end the supposed free riding of recipients, work for welfare continues to be an unwavering policy instrument despite findings that the policy is at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive in helping OW clients find and keep work (Lightman et al 2005, Little 2005, Peck 2001, Quaid 2002).</p> <p>Some scholars argue that administrative practices are maintained by the normative assumptions on which a policy stands (Fraser 1989, George and Wilding 2003, Plant et al. 1989). In order to investigate the normative underpinnings behind OW work, this study explored the literature on welfare state approaches. This review focused on the normative assumptions surrounding work that are engaged to diffuse and inculcate neoliberal imperatives and class and gender related codes of conduct connected to OW work. By conducting interviews with OW clients and staff, this study also examined the ways in which norms facilitate the administration of OW especially how internalized taken-for-granted ideas about work are leveraged by the policy. Gramsci’s notions of hegemony and common sense (Gramsci 2010) and Bourdieu’s notion of habitus, field and capital (Bourdieu 1989) were engaged as theoretical tools that might explain how taken-for-granted assumptions facilitate the administration of OW and the enforcement of workfare policies.</p> <p>The project found that the 'works' part of OW is comprised of 3 types of work: becoming eligible, employable and employed. A major contradiction that emerged during the investigation is that OW is focused on ensuring ongoing eligibility - not on employment. The administration of OW work engages with normative expectations surrounding work, welfare and gender that are connected to the contradictions in OW work. It is common sense ideas surrounding these normative expectations (such as the moral benefits of work) that maintain practices and reconcile contradictions. As well, a specific habitus (coach/gatekeeper) operates in OW which engages certain types of common sense ideas that align with normative expectations.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The South Australian Rann Labor government elected in 2002 became the first in the nation to address ‘social exclusion’ through the implementation of a Social Inclusion Initiative. The increasingly popular term ‘social exclusion’ was first used overseas in the early 1970s to describe serious symptoms of socio-economic disadvantage linked with global economic restructuring. Taking the South Australian policy initiative as a point of departure, this thesis provides a multi-layered analysis of social exclusion discourses and policy approaches, exploring their significance in the context of Australia’s shifting welfare state terrain. In so doing, the thesis seeks to break new ground both at general theory and specific case study levels by utilising a regulation approach (RA) to test the research hypothesis that ‘social inclusion’ policies are reflective of a transitional neoliberal (or, in some instances, Third Way) mode of social regulation which is inadequate to arrest rising socio-economic inequality linked to the collapse of the post-war ‘Fordist-Keynesian’ consensus. The cross-disciplinary regulation approach is a method of inquiry used to analyse spatially and temporally specific shifts in phases of capitalist accumulation and the different policy and institutional arrangements that support accumulation in each phase. The complex and interrelated institutional shifts at the Australian national level are critical to understanding the origins and impact of ‘social inclusion’ policies. Hence the adoption of this type of policy approach at the South Australian state level is considered in a broader national political economic context where the phenomenon of social exclusion is located within national welfare to work reforms. By applying a regulationist lens to examine the global concept of social exclusion in a local and broader national setting, the thesis offers empirical evidence to one of the ‘missing links’ in the ‘post-Fordist’ literature. That is, it contributes to the debate about whether nascent neoliberal or Third Way modes of social regulation have potential to stabilise capitalism’s inherent crisis tendencies, or whether they merely extend a period of institutional searching. The thesis concludes that the South Australian Social Inclusion Initiative in various ways appears to be not only partial and inadequate in its own terms, but fundamentally in conflict with the South Australian government’s broader policy objectives. In short, it shows that the Initiative has inadequate capacity to address the impact of global structural changes that have caused the polarisation of wealth and increasing poverty. Furthermore, it is argued that this approach attempts to suppress class dissent by silencing potential critics, and fails to intersect with or compensate for national level policies which have served to depress wages and simultaneously reduce the welfare safety net. It is concluded from these findings that these policies do not have the capacity to contribute to an equitable or sustainable new mode of social regulation. The thesis argues that a more comprehensive approach to ‘social inclusion’ is required in the post-Keynesian era and proposes further research to this end. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1348509 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2008

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

The purpose of this study was to compare the activities of four policy actors in Arizona with common recommendations of eight task force studies on K-12 public education in an effort to determine changes in policy priorities for education in Arizona from 1981 through 1984. The policy actors investigated were the Arizona State Board of Education, the Arizona Legislature, Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt, and the lobby efforts of the Arizona Education Association. Activities of these four policy actors were compared with common recommendations from The Paideia Proposal--An Educational Manifesto, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, Making the Grade, Action for Excellence--A Comprehensive Plan to Improve Our Nation's Schools, A Place Called School-Prospects for the Future (national reports), Education in Arizona: Popular Concerns Unpopular Choices, A Statewide Report Concerning Public Education, and A Call to Excellence--A Plan for the Renewal of Arizona Public Schools (state reports). A comparative documentary analysis was made of the quantitative and qualitative data gathered. It was found that 17 recommendations were common (consensus of four or more) among the five national and three state reports under consideration: (1) establishing a K-12 core curriculum; (2) upgrading textbooks; (3) increasing the amount of homework required; (4) lengthening the number of days in the school year; (5) providing extra programs for slow learners and gifted students; (6) lengthening the school day; (7) establishing codes of student conduct; (8) improving the use of school time; (9) increasing preschool and kindergarten programs; (10) removing tasks from teachers; (11) improving student attendance; (12) improving teacher preparation programs; (13) increasing teachers' salaries; (14) providing 11-12 month teacher contracts; (15) rewarding superior teachers; (16) evaluating teachers; and (17) defining the principal's role as instructional leader. Using the 17 common recommendations for education policy as a screening device, it was determined that the majority of new education policy in Arizona emanated from the State Legislature from 1981 through 1984. The Arizona State Board of Education seemed second in the amount of influence generated. Governor Bruce Babbitt and the Arizona Education Association played lesser roles as far as successful completion of their respective recommended policies were concerned.

This thesis examines the problems facing many of the rural water projects, especially in terms of their planning and implementation . There is a strong belief that water services in the rural areas are often not sustainable, and this is one of the major questions facing policy-makers over the last few years. The complexity of this problem has necessitated the development of a research project which will enable the assessment of various problems that become a barrier to the sustainability of water projects. The present study was carried out in Emfundweni administrative area of the Umzimkhulu district in the Eastern Cape Province. The methodology was based on a study of opinions, beliefs, ideas and realities as examined through research amongst community members, water department officials, local government staff in the form of the T.L.C's and engineers who were involved with the Emfundweni water project. One of the key aims of the study was to examine what problems affected the sustainability of water projects in rural areas, with the Emfundweni as a case study. The decision to include community members in the study is based on the fact that people involved in this water project hold their own perceptions, attitude and bias regarding what factors constituted problems that led to the lack of sustainability of the water project. The method that was used in the study allowed the researcher to compare the perceptions of the T.L.C's with those held by the community members engineers and water department officials. The findings supported the five hypotheses set out by the researcher in order to test the working model. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2003.

In the UK, over the past decade, the rhetoric of ‘Third Way’ governance informed cultural policy. The research sets out how the agenda for cultural policy converged with priorities for economic and social policy, in policies implemented by Arts Council England, in the commissioning of publicly funded visual art and within culture-led regeneration. Hence visual art production was further instrumentalized for the purposes of marketization and privatization. The practice-based research examines the problems issues and contingencies for visual art production in this context. Public sphere theory is used to examine ideas of publics and publicness in Third Way cultural policy context, in state cultural institutions and programming. Using Jürgen Habermas’ conception of the public sphere, the research proposes that cultural policy functioned as ‘steering media’, as publicity for the state to produce social cohesion and affirmative conceptions of the social order, i.e. the management of publics. In contrast, public sphere theory is concerned with societal processes of opinion formation, of selfforming, deliberating and rival publics. The research also applies theories of the public sphere to the theories of art and participation associated with socially-engaged art practice - theories that articulate art in relation to its publics. While socially-engaged artists have produced new modes of art practice that have shifted arts ontology, the research points to how Third Way cultural policy was quick to seize upon socially-engaged art for its own agenda. Public sphere theory informed the strategies and tactics of the Freee art collective (Dave Beech, Andy Hewitt, Mel Jordan) in the production of publicly-funded artworks. The artworks were a means to test the hypothesis and to find evidence by intervening in Third Way cultural policy with alternative ideas. Freee’s public spherian art proposes new modes of participative art to counter Third Way cultural policy - a ‘counter-public art’.

Housing and related services (HRS) were developed as part of the deinstitutionalisation movement, as alternative accommodation arrangements for people living with mental health problems. Despite this movement starting over fifty years ago there are still many approaches to HRS, and no clear model of best practice. Furthermore, even with an extensive evidence base and many reviews of HRS, there is still no agreement on what a successful HRS organisation and service look like. The purpose of the study was to re-evaluate the area of HRS, working inductively rather than imposing parameters on the subject. The aim was to capture the experiences of HRS stakeholders in order to gain a richer understanding of how HRS are delivered and received in practice. A Case Study approach was adopted using an organisation that has provided HRS for people living with mental health problems for over thirty years. The stakeholders who constituted the participant group were tenants (service users) and staff (support staff, housing staff and executives on the board of trustees). The study was guided by a Grounded Theory framework, and the stakeholders participated in interviews, joint interviews and a focus group. The results were broken down into change, factors affecting HRS, and a conceptual model which formed the basis of substantive theory of HRS. A Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) was undertaken to explore previous literature in HRS. The results explore descriptive information, ambiguity, black-box evaluations and theory driven evaluations in HRS. Together the study findings and the CIS were used to construct a conceptual framework which can be used to understand the processes and outcomes in HRS. Future work is needed to establish cause and effect of identified factors, but the work of this thesis makes important progress in critically exploring the area of HRS.

The Chinese group is the fastest growing ethnic group in the UK; this group is ageing fast, with the number of older Chinese doubling in 8 years. The majority of older Chinese immigrants in the UK have low education levels and limited English proficiency, and were reported to have low service use rate, lack of social support, and poor emotional status. This suggests that they may have difficult ageing experiences. This research set out to understand the UK older Chinese immigrants’ ageing experiences and coping strategies with the challenges of ageing, with a focus on the formal service use in their later life. The research adopted grounded theory as methodology, and used semi-structured interviews for data collection. The research had two phases. The first phase was exploratory using, mainly, focus groups to investigate perceptions of ageing, and for orientation to the field. Based on the contextual data provided by the phase one study, the phase two study was more focused on the support network and its influences on services use. Here individual interviews with follow-ups were used to gain in-depth understanding. Together, 58 participants, including older Chinese immigrants (n=44), family members of older Chinese (n=9), staff from organizations that work with Chinese people (n=3), and acquaintance who provided support for older Chinese (n=2), were interviewed. During phase two of the study, a group of key support providers who facilitated access to formal services for older Chinese were identified, and named as Bridge People. The outcomes of this research revealed that older Chinese immigrants used Bridge People, consisting of people from family, public sectors, Chinese community, and personal social network, to communicate with formal service providers. Older Chinese immigrants also rely on Bridge People to bridge other gaps in service delivery, such as lack of transportation, informational support, emotional support, and other cultural issues. In return, Bridge People gained trust and incurred power with older Chinese immigrants. Properties of Bridge People were identified as bilingual, bicultural, accessible, costless, and no social debt. Within the concept of Bridge People, each category provides a different combination of support, and older Chinese immigrants used this range of support in different combinations. In this study new theory and knowledge were generated about older Chinese and their key support providers. The Bridge People network model highlights the importance of interactions between Bridge People and older Chinese immigrants in accessing and using formal services. As many factors, including limited information resources, availability, role, emotional attachment, confined the performance of Bridge People, there are implications for policy makers; namely the role and importance of Bridge People should be recognized across health, social care and housing provision for older people. To promote engagement and optimise service use by older Chinese, relevant support should also be provided to Bridge People.

This thesis critically examines governmental responses to physical and social disorder in inner-city neighbourhoods through urban regeneration policies. Through an exploration of historical, social and political narratives on urban areas, the thesis identifies that the concept of dangerous places and faces has been a dominant discourse and feature in Britain for the past 200 years. Using Chapeltown, Leeds as a case study, this thesis explores the urban regeneration interventions in this area. Chapeltown is selected because it is, historically, a community with a high population of minority ethnic people and immigrants. Thus, ‘race’ and racism, and a critique of public policies as they affect UK Black and minority ethnic communities are the primary concerns of this thesis. It is argued that the tools of urban regeneration aimed at tackling physical and social disorder such as partnership, participation and community involvement/engagement are mere ‘rhetorical devices’ that are out of sync with normative standards of citizenship and fairness. The thesis has adopted a case study research methodology. It argues that for social and physical disorder to be tackled, there is the need to consider how the concept of citizenship should be the central issue in urban regeneration policies. The thesis concludes that the processes that result in some urban neighbourhoods being considered ‘bad’, ‘dangerous’ or ‘criminal’ must be understood as part of a broader set of political-economic forces which shapes the spatial distribution of urban populations and, in particular, the ‘placing’ of the poor in urban space. Hence there is the need to examine the social and physical disorder using the lens of citizenship.