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Reframing Social Citizenship

Taylor-Gooby, Peter (2008) Reframing Social Citizenship. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 240 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-954670-1. (doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199546701.001.0001) (KAR id:18949)

Abstract

Recent reforms in welfare states generate new challenges to social citizenship. Social citizenship depends on the readiness of voters to support reciprocity and social inclusion and their trust in welfare state institutions as services that will meet their needs. Reform programmes in most western countries combine New Public Management, linking market competition and regulation by targets to achieve greater efficiency and responsiveness to service-users, and welfare-to-work and make-work-pay activation policies to manage labour market change. Both developments rest on a rational actor approach to human motivation. The UK has pursued the reform programme with more vigour than any other major European country and provides a useful object less of its strengths and limitations.The book provides a detailed analytic account of social science approaches to agency. It shows that the rational actor approach has difficulties in explaining how social inclusion and social trust arise. Policies based on it provide weak support for these aspects of citizenship. It is attractive to policy-makers seeking solutions to the problem of improving the efficiency and responsiveness of welfare systems in a more globalised world, in which citizens are more critical and the authority of national governments is in decline.Recent reform programmes were undertaken to meet real pressures on existing patterns of provision. They have been largely successful in maintaining mass services but risk undermining social inclusion and eroding trust in public welfare institutions. In the longer term, they may destroy the social citizenship essential to sustain welfare states.

Item Type: Book
DOI/Identification number: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199546701.001.0001
Subjects: H Social Sciences
H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Peter Taylor-Gooby
Date Deposited: 21 Dec 2009 19:57 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Mar 2023 11:31 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/18949 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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