As Kearns (1995), Marinetto (2003) Newman and Tonkens (2011) and others have noted, in several Western European countries current waves of welfare state restructuring go together with growing state support for ‘self-organized’ welfare services. For instance within the British Big Society and Dutch ‘Doe-democratie’ (‘Democracy by doing’) policy framework, citizens are stimulated to become active in helping others in their neighbourhood. States seek citizens’ involvement in local welfare provision for cost-efficiency, as well as for democratic and administrative innovation and reinforcement of social cohesion. However, in the debate on ‘self-organization’ and ‘active citizenship’ the fear is often expressed that in deprived areas, where welfare services are most needed, the capacity to self-organize is low. Thus the policy focus on self-organization will exacerbate social inequality (Uitermark, 2012, Van Kempen et al., 2014). Since there is little empirical knowledge about the impact of self-organization of welfare services for richer and poorer neighbourhoods, my PhD project aims to investigate these practices in Rotterdam neighbourhoods that differ starkly in their socio-economic (and ethnical) composition. Starting from a theoretical framework focused on activation, means and neighbourhood context, I investigate to what extent the increased attention for active citizenship in welfare services reinforces spatial inequality within the city.
Bosch, E. (2015). ESPANET Doctoral Workshop. Intervento presentato a: Fourth Doctoral Workshop of the German ESPAnet Section: “What Welfare States do to People and how People use Welfare State Programmes”, University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf.
ESPANET Doctoral Workshop
BOSCH, EVA MARTINA
2015
Abstract
As Kearns (1995), Marinetto (2003) Newman and Tonkens (2011) and others have noted, in several Western European countries current waves of welfare state restructuring go together with growing state support for ‘self-organized’ welfare services. For instance within the British Big Society and Dutch ‘Doe-democratie’ (‘Democracy by doing’) policy framework, citizens are stimulated to become active in helping others in their neighbourhood. States seek citizens’ involvement in local welfare provision for cost-efficiency, as well as for democratic and administrative innovation and reinforcement of social cohesion. However, in the debate on ‘self-organization’ and ‘active citizenship’ the fear is often expressed that in deprived areas, where welfare services are most needed, the capacity to self-organize is low. Thus the policy focus on self-organization will exacerbate social inequality (Uitermark, 2012, Van Kempen et al., 2014). Since there is little empirical knowledge about the impact of self-organization of welfare services for richer and poorer neighbourhoods, my PhD project aims to investigate these practices in Rotterdam neighbourhoods that differ starkly in their socio-economic (and ethnical) composition. Starting from a theoretical framework focused on activation, means and neighbourhood context, I investigate to what extent the increased attention for active citizenship in welfare services reinforces spatial inequality within the city.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
