Pub Date : 2019-10-01DOI: 10.1332/175982719X15622544227830
R. Crosse, M. Millar
This paper explores the experiences of 15 Irish mothers who have undergone a legal separation and/or divorce and highlights that while both parents have a legal responsibility to care for children in the event of a dissolution of marriage, the enforcement of such responsibilities is deficient in the case of the absent parent. This is particularly deleterious for mothers living in poverty and we question the adequacy of current policy to deal with changing family circumstances. The narratives of the mothers show that their lived reality is exacerbated by the failure of the state to enforce fathers’ obligations to their children at the time of separation and divorce, a situation which is untenable 21 years after the introduction of divorce.
{"title":"Off the hook: mutual absolution of responsibility by fathers and the state, the experiences of separated and divorced Irish mothers","authors":"R. Crosse, M. Millar","doi":"10.1332/175982719X15622544227830","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/175982719X15622544227830","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the experiences of 15 Irish mothers who have undergone a legal separation and/or divorce and highlights that while both parents have a legal responsibility to care for children in the event of a dissolution of marriage, the enforcement of such responsibilities is deficient in the case of the absent parent. This is particularly deleterious for mothers living in poverty and we question the adequacy of current policy to deal with changing family circumstances. The narratives of the mothers show that their lived reality is exacerbated by the failure of the state to enforce fathers’ obligations to their children at the time of separation and divorce, a situation which is untenable 21 years after the introduction of divorce.","PeriodicalId":45090,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Poverty and Social Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49073999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-01DOI: 10.1332/175982719x15538485252706
E. Kane
In the context of critiques of welfare policy in the USA, I explore how mothers living in public housing balance notions of individual and collective responsibility for families struggling with poverty. Participants recognise collective responsibility at the institutional level and prefer inclusive approaches to public assistance policy. But the hegemony of individualism in the culture and in the framing of their specific programme pulls them toward the rhetoric of personal responsibility and a punitive, market-based logic of individual choice. This, in turn, obscures the gendered and classed structures reinforced by neoliberal policy’s emphasis on privatised market forces and personal responsibility.
{"title":"Beliefs about family policy among US mothers in publicly-subsidised housing: collective responsibility or individual self-sufficiency","authors":"E. Kane","doi":"10.1332/175982719x15538485252706","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/175982719x15538485252706","url":null,"abstract":"In the context of critiques of welfare policy in the USA, I explore how mothers living in public housing balance notions of individual and collective responsibility for families struggling with poverty. Participants recognise collective responsibility at the institutional level and\u0000 prefer inclusive approaches to public assistance policy. But the hegemony of individualism in the culture and in the framing of their specific programme pulls them toward the rhetoric of personal responsibility and a punitive, market-based logic of individual choice. This, in turn, obscures\u0000 the gendered and classed structures reinforced by neoliberal policy’s emphasis on privatised market forces and personal responsibility.","PeriodicalId":45090,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Poverty and Social Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45878512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-09-10DOI: 10.1332/175982719x15637716050550
Lorraine Hansford, F. Thomas, K. Wyatt
This paper examines the impact of increased welfare conditionality on people with mental health issues claiming benefits in the UK. Drawing on data from the DeStress study, this paper explores the lived experience of welfare claimants in low-income communities, and the perspectives of GPs seeking to support them. Particular focus is placed on people’s experience of the Work Capability Assessment, the tool used to determine welfare claimants’ entitlement to sickness benefit, and how the narratives and culture surrounding welfare reform and the actual assessment itself can have a negative impact on mental health and wellbeing.
{"title":"The impact of the Work Capability Assessment on mental health: claimants’ lived experiences and GP perspectives in low-income communities","authors":"Lorraine Hansford, F. Thomas, K. Wyatt","doi":"10.1332/175982719x15637716050550","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/175982719x15637716050550","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the impact of increased welfare conditionality on people with mental health issues claiming benefits in the UK. Drawing on data from the DeStress study, this paper explores the lived experience of welfare claimants in low-income communities, and the perspectives\u0000 of GPs seeking to support them. Particular focus is placed on people’s experience of the Work Capability Assessment, the tool used to determine welfare claimants’ entitlement to sickness benefit, and how the narratives and culture surrounding welfare reform and the actual assessment\u0000 itself can have a negative impact on mental health and wellbeing.","PeriodicalId":45090,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Poverty and Social Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2019-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1332/175982719x15637716050550","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44612039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-08-01DOI: 10.1332/175982719X15626279221341
S. Lyndon
Early years practitioners are integral to government policy on addressing child poverty in the UK. Drawing on findings from a qualitative study this paper seeks to contribute new understandings about how practitioners’ narratives are shaped by discourses of poverty. Overall practitioners’ understandings of poverty reflected a moral discourse of deserving and undeserving poor. However, the complexity of interconnections between morality, gender and motherhood (and fatherhood) reveals how understandings were also broad, nuanced and at times contradictory. The study highlights the need for further research into how understandings of poverty are formed together with the need for new narratives of poverty.
{"title":"Tangled narratives of poverty in early childhood: othering, work, welfare and ‘curveballs’","authors":"S. Lyndon","doi":"10.1332/175982719X15626279221341","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/175982719X15626279221341","url":null,"abstract":"Early years practitioners are integral to government policy on addressing child poverty in the UK. Drawing on findings from a qualitative study this paper seeks to contribute new understandings about how practitioners’ narratives are shaped by discourses of poverty. Overall practitioners’\u0000 understandings of poverty reflected a moral discourse of deserving and undeserving poor. However, the complexity of interconnections between morality, gender and motherhood (and fatherhood) reveals how understandings were also broad, nuanced and at times contradictory. The study highlights\u0000 the need for further research into how understandings of poverty are formed together with the need for new narratives of poverty.","PeriodicalId":45090,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Poverty and Social Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2019-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45507425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-30DOI: 10.1332/175982719X15633498713650
Philip Alston, Bassam Khawaja, R. Riddell
This article explores the challenges involved for a United Nations Human Rights Council independent expert, or ‘Special Rapporteur’, in investigating and evaluating the situation of people in poverty in a wide range of countries, given the diversity of contexts, factors, and resource availability that inevitably arise. As a case study to illustrate the main issues, the article takes a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the November 2018 visit to the United Kingdom by the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. Attention is paid to the process, outcomes, and responses by civil society, policymakers, and the public. It then considers whether human rights is a useful lens through which to address poverty, and whether an outside human rights expert has much to contribute in a wealthy country with a vibrant academic community, civil society, and media.
{"title":"Much ado about poverty: the role of a UN Special Rapporteur","authors":"Philip Alston, Bassam Khawaja, R. Riddell","doi":"10.1332/175982719X15633498713650","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/175982719X15633498713650","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the challenges involved for a United Nations Human Rights Council independent expert, or ‘Special Rapporteur’, in investigating and evaluating the situation of people in poverty in a wide range of countries, given the diversity of contexts, factors, and resource availability that inevitably arise. As a case study to illustrate the main issues, the article takes a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the November 2018 visit to the United Kingdom by the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. Attention is paid to the process, outcomes, and responses by civil society, policymakers, and the public. It then considers whether human rights is a useful lens through which to address poverty, and whether an outside human rights expert has much to contribute in a wealthy country with a vibrant academic community, civil society, and media.","PeriodicalId":45090,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Poverty and Social Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2019-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45097634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-06-11DOI: 10.1332/175982719X15622552304853
D. Fletcher
A post-industrial ‘precariat’ has emerged characterised by social insecurity to which the state’s response has been to secure habituation to insecure labour. This article provides new empirical evidence regarding how the precariat encounter and experience the reformed welfare delivery system. It seeks to explore theoretically whether the precariat is being ‘activated’ and/or ‘civilised’. The author finds that the primary role of Jobcentre Plus is to assess whether the unemployed are ‘active’. This has been interpreted by Marxist scholars as a class disciplinary project which renders labour more dependent upon precarious work. However, the evidence presented here suggests that an inappropriate white-collar model of support combined with sanctions frequently results in ill-discipline and disentitlement from benefits. Furthermore, support cannot be conceptualised as a ‘civilising offensive’ because it is not a deliberate and targeted attempt at inculcating ‘civilised’ behaviour. Moreover, rather than enforcing the norms of civilised behaviour it drives many into destitution and crime.
{"title":"British public employment service reform: activating and civilising the precariat?","authors":"D. Fletcher","doi":"10.1332/175982719X15622552304853","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/175982719X15622552304853","url":null,"abstract":"A post-industrial ‘precariat’ has emerged characterised by social insecurity to which the state’s response has been to secure habituation to insecure labour. This article provides new empirical evidence regarding how the precariat encounter and experience the reformed\u0000 welfare delivery system. It seeks to explore theoretically whether the precariat is being ‘activated’ and/or ‘civilised’. The author finds that the primary role of Jobcentre Plus is to assess whether the unemployed are ‘active’. This has been interpreted\u0000 by Marxist scholars as a class disciplinary project which renders labour more dependent upon precarious work. However, the evidence presented here suggests that an inappropriate white-collar model of support combined with sanctions frequently results in ill-discipline and disentitlement from\u0000 benefits. Furthermore, support cannot be conceptualised as a ‘civilising offensive’ because it is not a deliberate and targeted attempt at inculcating ‘civilised’ behaviour. Moreover, rather than enforcing the norms of civilised behaviour it drives many into destitution\u0000 and crime.","PeriodicalId":45090,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Poverty and Social Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2019-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1332/175982719X15622552304853","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47578712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-06-05DOI: 10.1332/175982719x15622547838659
L. Naven, E. Sosu, S. Spencer, J. Egan
This study examined the potential influence of policies and practices on the ability of children from low-income families to participate fully in the school day. Pupils from six schools participated in 71 focus groups and revealed a range of barriers affecting their school experience: transport costs and limited support; clothing costs, stigma and enforcement of school dress codes; material barriers to learning at school and home; concerns about free school meals; missing out on school trips, clubs and events.Findings on school uniform were an important catalyst towards a recent policy change in Scotland in increasing the school clothing grant.
{"title":"The influence of poverty on children’s school experiences: pupils’ perspectives","authors":"L. Naven, E. Sosu, S. Spencer, J. Egan","doi":"10.1332/175982719x15622547838659","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/175982719x15622547838659","url":null,"abstract":"This study examined the potential influence of policies and practices on the ability of children from low-income families to participate fully in the school day. Pupils from six schools participated in 71 focus groups and revealed a range of barriers affecting their school experience:\u0000 transport costs and limited support; clothing costs, stigma and enforcement of school dress codes; material barriers to learning at school and home; concerns about free school meals; missing out on school trips, clubs and events.Findings on school uniform were an important catalyst towards\u0000 a recent policy change in Scotland in increasing the school clothing grant.","PeriodicalId":45090,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Poverty and Social Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2019-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1332/175982719x15622547838659","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41675074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-06-04DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479891214.003.0007
S. Halpern-Meekin
This chapter discusses the experiences parents have early on in the year in which they are enrolled in the relationship education program; this is when their participation is most intense, often including weekly workshop attendance. Researchers have debated whether relationship education programs have a substantial impact on participants, and they have critiqued programs’ ideological underpinnings and ability to resolve participants’ financial needs. Three months after enrolling in Family Expectations, the participants described learning relationship skills, including specific techniques for facilitating healthy communication and avoiding destructive conflict; some also described becoming more knowledgeable and confident parents. They often described the program as having benefited their relationship by increasing its quality and making them feel more hopeful about its future. In short, they felt the program helped solidify their relationship as a social asset—a protection against social poverty.
{"title":"Learning Skills","authors":"S. Halpern-Meekin","doi":"10.18574/nyu/9781479891214.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479891214.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses the experiences parents have early on in the year in which they are enrolled in the relationship education program; this is when their participation is most intense, often including weekly workshop attendance. Researchers have debated whether relationship education programs have a substantial impact on participants, and they have critiqued programs’ ideological underpinnings and ability to resolve participants’ financial needs. Three months after enrolling in Family Expectations, the participants described learning relationship skills, including specific techniques for facilitating healthy communication and avoiding destructive conflict; some also described becoming more knowledgeable and confident parents. They often described the program as having benefited their relationship by increasing its quality and making them feel more hopeful about its future. In short, they felt the program helped solidify their relationship as a social asset—a protection against social poverty.","PeriodicalId":45090,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Poverty and Social Justice","volume":"84 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2019-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83857388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-06-04DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479891214.003.0009
S. Halpern-Meekin
Relationship education programs do little to deliver on their original promise of addressing financial poverty, turning the tide on state divorce rates, or increasing state marriage rates, but participants see their relationships and their children benefiting nonetheless. An underlying reason is because these programs seem to address factors related to parents’ risk for social poverty—unclear expectations for their new social roles, techniques for carrying out these roles successfully, and trust in themselves and one another. Social Poverty offers a set of recommendations for social policy and relationship education programs. This includes the idea that policy must be constructed using the lens of social poverty, such as by designing programs to promote dignity and human connection.
{"title":"Conclusion","authors":"S. Halpern-Meekin","doi":"10.18574/nyu/9781479891214.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479891214.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"Relationship education programs do little to deliver on their original promise of addressing financial poverty, turning the tide on state divorce rates, or increasing state marriage rates, but participants see their relationships and their children benefiting nonetheless. An underlying reason is because these programs seem to address factors related to parents’ risk for social poverty—unclear expectations for their new social roles, techniques for carrying out these roles successfully, and trust in themselves and one another. Social Poverty offers a set of recommendations for social policy and relationship education programs. This includes the idea that policy must be constructed using the lens of social poverty, such as by designing programs to promote dignity and human connection.","PeriodicalId":45090,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Poverty and Social Justice","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2019-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89515979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-06-04DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479891214.003.0005
S. Halpern-Meekin
This chapter discusses how becoming a parent involves a huge transformation in social role and identity. It often spurs young people to want to act more grown-up and do better—at work, in their relationships, with their educations—than before, all to give their children a better life than they themselves had while growing up. These role transitions—to adulthood, partnership, and parenthood—are intertwined in these young people’s lives, and complications and challenges arise from tackling these transitions simultaneously. Amid a great deal of instability and change, the young parents in this study struggle to trust one another and themselves, which makes securing their desired social resources and avoiding social poverty that much more difficult.
{"title":"Becoming a Parent","authors":"S. Halpern-Meekin","doi":"10.18574/nyu/9781479891214.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479891214.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses how becoming a parent involves a huge transformation in social role and identity. It often spurs young people to want to act more grown-up and do better—at work, in their relationships, with their educations—than before, all to give their children a better life than they themselves had while growing up. These role transitions—to adulthood, partnership, and parenthood—are intertwined in these young people’s lives, and complications and challenges arise from tackling these transitions simultaneously. Amid a great deal of instability and change, the young parents in this study struggle to trust one another and themselves, which makes securing their desired social resources and avoiding social poverty that much more difficult.","PeriodicalId":45090,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Poverty and Social Justice","volume":"132 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2019-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89332950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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