When the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act became law in 1996, the architects of welfare reform celebrated what they called the new consensus on welfare: that cash assistance should be temporary and contingent on recipients' seeking and finding employment. However, assessments about the assumptions and consequences of this radical change to the nation's social safety net were actually far more varied and disputed than the label consensus suggests. By examining the varied realities and accountings of welfare restructuring, Stretched Thin looks back at a critical moment of policy change and suggests how welfare policy in the United States can be changed to better address the needs of poor families and the nation. Using ethgraphic observations, in-depth interviews with poor families and welfare workers, survey data tracking more than 750 families over two years, and documentary evidence, Sandra Morgen, Joan Acker, and Jill Weigt question the validity of claims that welfare reform has been a success. They show how poor families, welfare workers, and welfare administrators experienced and assessed welfare reform differently based on gender, race, class, and their varying positions of power and control within the welfare state. The authors document the ways that, despite the dramatic drop in welfare rolls, low-wage jobs and inadequate social supports left many families struggling in poverty. Revealing how the neoliberal principles of a drastically downsized welfare state and individual responsibility for ecomic survival were implemented through policies and practices of welfare provision and nprovision, the authors conclude with new recommendations for reforming welfare policy to reduce poverty, promote ecomic security, and foster shared prosperity.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Cornell University Press
ISBN-10
0801475104
ISBN-13
9780801475108
eBay Product ID (ePID)
95329897
Product Key Features
Author
Sandra Morgen, Jill Weigt, Joan Acker
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Subject
Current Affairs & Issues
Type
Textbook
Dimensions
Weight
399g
Height
235mm
Width
156mm
Additional Product Features
Place of Publication
Ithaca
Spine
15mm
Content Note
7
Date of Publication
15/12/2009
Genre
Current Affairs & Issues
Country of Publication
United States
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