The power of citizens and professionals in welfare encounters : the influence of bureaucracy, market and psychology /
This book addresses the crucial issue of the interrelation between macro and micro structures within citizen-professional encounters of the modern welfare state. Since the 1990s, European welfare states have moved towards a so-called governance approach; a bottom-up approach that emphasizes the acti...
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Main Authors: | |
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Published: |
Manchester University Press,
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Publisher Address: | Manchester : |
Publication Dates: | 2017. |
Literature type: | Book |
Language: | English |
Series: |
Social and political power. |
Subjects: | |
Summary: |
This book addresses the crucial issue of the interrelation between macro and micro structures within citizen-professional encounters of the modern welfare state. Since the 1990s, European welfare states have moved towards a so-called governance approach; a bottom-up approach that emphasizes the activeness, engagement, co-production, and cooperation of citizens. This framing of the encounter means that citizens are no longer best described as the passive clients of the bureaucracy, and welfare workers are no longer automatically the powerful party of the encounter. However, the welfare encounter is structured by other factors as well; factors such as market values and bureaucratic principles which often pull in different directions than the governance approach to citizens. nevertheless, most current research is inspired by either a Weberian approach (highlighting bureaucratic principle) or a Foucauldian approach (often referring to market values or norms from psychology) and therefore singularly fails to adequately grasp the complexities of the empirical world. For this reason, this book engages with the sociology of professions as well as both Weberian and Foucauldian inspired approaches to the welfare encounter in order to qualify its analysis. Aside from chapters on the sociology of professions, symbolic interactionism, power in welfare encounters, bureaucratic principles, market values, norms from psychology, the book includes a double-length chapter that qualifies the conclusions through empirical analysis of encounters between citizens and doctors, caseworkers and social workers. The book will be of interest to academics, postgraduates, and undergraduates within sociology, anthropology, and political science. |
Carrier Form: | xii, 158 pages ; 24 cm. |
Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages [143]-154) and index. |
ISBN: |
9781526110282 (hardback) : 1526110288 (hardback) |
Index Number: | HV31 |
CLC: | C913.7 |
Call Number: | C913.7/M636-1 |
Contents: | Series editor's introduction -- Preface. Introduction. Part 1 Power and professions in welfare work : Professions, de-professionalisation and welfare work -- Soft power and welfare work -- Powerful encounters as seen from an interactionist perspective. Part 2 The bureaucratic, market and psychology-inspired contexts : The bureaucratic context: administrator-client -- The market context: service-consumer -- The psychology-inspired context: coach-coachee. Part 3 Welfare encounters in practice : The power of bureaucracy, market and psychology in citizen-staff encounters -- Conclusion. References -- Index. |