Following the 2008/9 global financial crisis and ensuing economic uncertainty, the roll out of austerity politics has seen significant welfare retrenchment and a recalibration of the state-citizen relationship which can arguably be characterised by a process of punitive Neoliberalism. Nevertheless, the impacts of austerity politics are proving to be geographically uneven: spatially, there is significant evidence that the northern and western parts of Britain, particularly towns and cities therein, are especially prone to the punitive impacts of neoliberal austerity politics, while socially, some parts of society (e.g. the young, the disabled) find themselves exposed to the worst effects of austerity. Conducted under the period of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat UK Coalition Government (2010-2015) this thesis starts by considering the degree to which punitive austerity policies are economically necessary or driven by political ideology. Alongside this it determines whether austerity politics is a (re)new(ed) approach to welfare provision and the state-citizen relationship. The empirical parts of the thesis examine the tactics and strategies utilised by those conducting (the state), implementing (welfare providers and employers), and recipients (people and employees) of welfare-to-work policies, before considering what adaptations, innovations, co-operation, resistance and coping strategies are being employed by these stakeholders in response to austerity politics. In the final part, I argue that whilst many of the neoliberalised policies devised by the Coalition Government have been a renewal and reinvention of those already in place, this is part of a broader trend which is marked by the emergence of a more punitive Neoliberalism associated with a work-first welfare regime.

Submitted by Fernanda Ciolfi (fernanda.ciolfi@puc-campinas.edu.br) on 2016-04-07T18:23:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Heidy Joahanna Garrido Pinzon.pdf: 1919376 bytes, checksum: aaaacf762cb9a911de4a979c7a12c936 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-07T18:23:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Heidy Joahanna Garrido Pinzon.pdf: 1919376 bytes, checksum: aaaacf762cb9a911de4a979c7a12c936 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-29 / The purpose of this research was to analyze the experiences of workers enrolled in the health systems of Colombia and Brazil, taking into account the interesting fact that these two health systems emerged from opposing guidelines. On one hand, among the countries which suffered the intense economic crisis of the 1980?s, Colombia was unified in the most rigorous and systematic model because of hegemonic sanitary controls required by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund On the other hand, in Brazil, which also experienced the economic crisis, it was possible the creation of the Unified Health System (SUS ? Portuguese acronym), as a product of demands of popular movements, managing to establish health as a right of all citizens, which was written into the Federal Constitution of 1988. Thus, the SUS was born in the midst of the economic crisis of 1980, in a neoliberal scenario, in opposition to capitalist tendencies which were characterized by the search for new markets in the health sector, a tendency completely adopted by Colombia. Given this context, the present study aimed to understand the common experiences of basic care workers in Colombia and Brazil, against the capitalist logic. Based on the Social Psychology of Work?s approach, this research is qualitative in nature and has empirical style. It was developed by analyzing reflexive interviews of two groups of workers belonging to healthcare and administrative sectors of the Basic Attention: one in Bucaramanga, Colombia and the other in Campinas, Brazil. Content Analysis was used for the analysis process, which is understood as a set of research techniques, which aims to find sense or senses manifested in more diverse forms of communication. In the course of this investigation it was revealed that, in both countries, the main experiences of the health professionals, determined by neo-liberal logic, are related to the transformations introduced in the labor conditions and relations, and also in the organization of work. In the Colombian context, we find that the main problems presented by those interviewed have their origins in the transition process introduced by those reforms which gave rise to its current health care system. Such problems are reflected, mainly, in the deterioration of relations with patients, as well as, in the detriment of the configuration of the work teams, forced to live divided by the stark contrast between different contractual relations. This condition, which eventually causes an inherent difficulty to generate cohesion within the working groups, also appears in the Brazilian context, as a result of outsourcing, which has come to constitute an effective mechanism to weaken the SUS, to facilitate its waning and to place it on a path pointing in the direction of the current Colombian health system. Finally, in the two studied stages, this panorama of job insecurity, permeated by instability, intensification of responsibilities and overworked employees, reduction in wages, among others, has generated major consequences to the life and health of the workers, which are reflected in the deterioration of their mental and physical health, in the lack of social recognition, the deterioration of ethics and morality, also in some cases, even in constraints for the construction of a life project. / A presente pesquisa visa a analisar as viv?ncias de trabalhadores dos Sistemas P?blicos de Sa?de da Col?mbia e do Brasil, tendo-se em vista que esses dois casos ganham interesse de estudo por exemplificarem sistemas de sa?de cujo surgimento se d? a partir de diretrizes opostas. Por um lado, tem-se a Col?mbia que, dentre os pa?ses latino-americanos a sofrer a intensa crise econ?mica da d?cada de 1980, foi aquele que incorporou de maneira mais rigorosa e sistem?tica os crit?rios centrais do modelo hegem?nico das reformas sanit?rias estabelecidos pelo Banco Mundial e pelo Fundo Monet?rio Internacional. Por outro, observa-se a situa??o do Brasil, que tamb?m experimentou a crise econ?mica, onde foi poss?vel a cria??o do Sistema ?nico de Sa?de (SUS), produto das exig?ncias dos movimentos populares os quais conseguiram estabelecer a sa?de como um direito de todos os cidad?os, legitimando-se na Constitui??o Federal de 1988. Toma-se em considera??o, ent?o, como nasce o SUS, num cen?rio neoliberal em meio da crise econ?mica de 1980, em oposi??o a tend?ncias imperialistas que se caracterizavam pela busca de novos mercados no setor sa?de, enquanto a Col?mbia se subjugou totalmente a elas. Levando em conta esse contexto, o estudo aqui apresentado teve como objetivo compreender as viv?ncias de trabalhadores da Aten??o B?sica dos Sistemas P?blicos de Sa?de da Col?mbia e do Brasil, frente ? l?gica capitalista. Baseada no enfoque da Psicologia Social do Trabalho, esta pesquisa ? de natureza qualitativa e de tipo emp?rico. Desenvolveu-se mediante a realiza??o de entrevistas reflexivas em profundidade, com dois grupos de trabalhadores da Aten??o B?sica de n?vel assistencial e administrativo: um em Bucaramanga, Col?mbia e, outro, em Campinas, Brasil. Para o processo de an?lise, elegeu-se utilizar a An?lise de Conte?do, a qual ? compreendida como um conjunto de t?cnicas de pesquisa cujo objetivo ? a busca do sentido ou dos sentidos manifestos nas mais diversas formas de comunica??o. O percurso desta pesquisa revelou que, em ambos os pa?ses, as principais viv?ncias dos profissionais da sa?de, determinadas pela l?gica neoliberal, est?o relacionadas com as transforma??es introduzidas nas condi??es, rela??es e organiza??o do trabalho. No contexto colombiano estudado, identificamos a origem das problem?ticas centrais apresentadas pelos entrevistados no processo de transi??o induzido pela reforma que constituiu seu atual sistema de sa?de. Essas problem?ticas se traduzem, essencialmente, na deteriora??o das rela??es com os usu?rios, bem como na configura??o das equipes de trabalho, marcadas pelo contraste entre pessoas com diferentes v?nculos empregat?cios. Esta ?ltima condi??o, empecilho para a coes?o dos grupos de trabalho, tamb?m ? observada no contexto brasileiro pesquisado, como produto da terceiriza??o, que parece ter se tornado um efetivo mecanismo para enfraquecer o SUS, facilitar seu desmonte e coloc?-lo no mesmo caminho atualmente percorrido pelo sistema de sa?de colombiano. Por fim, exp?e-se como, nos dois cen?rios estudados, tal panorama de precariedade do trabalho, permeado pela instabilidade, intensifica??o e sobrecarga laboral, pela redu??o de sal?rios, dentre outros fatores, tem ocasionado graves consequ?ncias para a vida e a sa?de dos trabalhadores, que se refletem na degrada??o de sua sa?de f?sica e mental, na falta de reconhecimento social, na deteriora??o da ?tica e da moral e nas restri??es para a constru??o de um projeto de vida.

Many political reforms are currently implemented in the Swedish schools. The trend indicate that education in Sweden follows neo-liberal restructuring policy, that highlights assessment, marketization and surveillance in different aspects. According to the new curriculum LGR 11 the school head is the school's educational leader with responsibility for the school's results and development. The reforms put new demands on the school heads tasks, their responsibility and leadership. The aim of my research study is to investigate how the school heads experience andhandle this situation. I have chosen a phenomenological and hermeneutic perspective, that analyzes what the school heads direct their attention towards and how they experience meaning and context in their work with reforms. The analysis shows that the school heads have experiences about what the work with the reforms is about and that their own position and action in this work is very important. They have also imaginations about how they themselves and in collaboration with others in the organisation have to handle in this work in different ways so that the reforms can be implemented. In the reform process they even have a lot of dilemmas to handle in their local and concrete context, which is linked to the school's local conditions, history and tradition.