Description
Book SynopsisDraws a portrait of how welfare staff and their clients negotiate the complexities of the low wage labor market in an age of global competition. This title chronicles how entrepreneurial efforts ranging from front-line caseworkers to high-level administrators set the pace for restructuring a resistant bureaucracy.
Trade Review&8220;Ridzi provides a deeply grounded and richly detailed view of the many activities that have produced a new U.S. welfare regime. His focus on implementation gives fresh insight into the complex interplay of local and extra-local forces. -- Marjorie DeVault,editor of People at Work
&9220;In this fascinating study, Ridzi deftly explores how ‘work-first’ came to dominate welfare policy and how this neoliberal ideology contours the interactions between welfare staff and their clients.
Selling Welfare Reform is a must-read for all those interested in contemporary welfare reform. -- Nancy Naples,co-editor of The Sexuality of Migration
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1 "Selling Work-First": Introduction 2 "You're All Doing the Wrong Thing": Innovation and Common Sense 3 "A New Way of Doing Business": Performance Measures, Rights, and Common Sense 4 New Technology and New Customers 5 "We Are a Thorn in the Side of Those Who Won't Change": Buying into Work-First 6 "Not Everybody Fits into Their Box": Work-First, Gender, Race, and Families 7 "Don't Blame Me, It Wasn't Up to Me!": Policy Recommendations from Everyday Experience 8 Conclusion: Envisioning "A New Common Sense" Appendix Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
