Economic Insecurity, Public Governance & Neoliberal Paternalism

Programme Leader:
Mitchell Dean

Chief Investigators:
Prof Mel Gray, Dr Kylie Agllias, Dr Amanda Howard

Summary and Significance of Programme:
This programme examines the relationships between economic transformations in work, finance, and consumption, the reform of welfare governance, and challenges of human service delivery. Termed ‘neoliberal paternalism’, these new regimes of welfare are aimed at  ‘poverty management’ in a paradoxical way. On the one hand, they seek to enlist the freedom of citizens as customers, users and deliverers of services. On the other, they seek to compel welfare recipients towards economic participation while placing human service providers and managers under stringent contracting conditions and performance measures. This study seeks to analyse the economy-state relationship by linking neo-liberalisation to distinctive national forms of welfare state and to investigate the impact of this on human service workers.