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Imagining Social Policy Conference

Imagining Social Policy Conference. October 13-15, 2005 Vancouver, B.C. Enhancing Social Policy in Canada: The Gore-tex Approach. Rhonda S. Breitkreuz, Ph.D., Deanna L. Williamson, Ph.D., Department of Human Ecology, University of Alberta

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Imagining Social Policy Conference

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  1. Imagining Social Policy Conference October 13-15, 2005 Vancouver, B.C.

  2. Enhancing Social Policy in Canada: The Gore-tex Approach Rhonda S. Breitkreuz, Ph.D., Deanna L. Williamson, Ph.D., Department of Human Ecology, University of Alberta Acknowledgement: Support for this research was provided by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

  3. Purpose • Propose an “ideal” public policy approach which bridges aspects of contemporary welfare state orientations (I.e., the social investment state and the social protection state)

  4. Policy Context • Social protection  social investment (Jenson, 1997) • Social Protection State • Safety net • Social Investment State • Trampoline (Saint-Martin, 2000) • Welfare-to-work

  5. Situating the Discussion • The Self-Sufficiency Trap • the day-to-day experiences of welfare-to-work programs on low-income mothers with young children • A citizenship framework • Findings • The promise • The reality • Surprise: Participants like welfare-to-work

  6. Welfare State: Agency/structure waltz • “When does need entitle people to make a claim against the collective”? (Robertson, 1998, p. 1426) • Is income redistribution a moral responsibility or morally problematic for society?

  7. Dominated by two discourses with individualistic focus: Therapeutic language “Rights talk” New approach which recognizes mutuality or relationships Moral economy of interdependence The problem of need (Robertson, 1998)

  8. Interdependence • “our very individuality exists only as a result of our embeddedness in a network of relationships both private and public. None of us is totally independent of our context – social political and economic; rather, we are located and live within complex webs of mutual dependence or interdependence (Robertson, 1997, p. 436)

  9. Rethinking the Agency/Structure Waltz • Weather analogy • A good winter, like social structures: opportunity and constraints • Individual overcomes constraints to engage in opportunities, with considerable resources • Ability to engage one’s agency depends upon external resources

  10. The Gore-tex Approach • Social Protection • Protection • Social Investment • Opportunity Moral Economy of Interdependence Layered Approach

  11. Layer One: Citizen’s Basic Income (McKay, 2001) • Universal logic (Jenson, 2004) • Progressive universalism • “Some for all but more for the poorest” (Pawlick & Stroick 2004) • Less vulnerable to changing political tides • CBI especially important for women • Lower earnings • Caring responsibilities • Single-mother households

  12. Layer Two: Social Investment • Labour & employment strategies • Education • Childcare policy • Early childhood development policy

  13. Discussion • Social protection is necessary, but not sufficient • Although the Citizens’ Basic Income is not a new idea, it merits revisiting to enhance the current ‘investment’ policy orientation which, on its own, excludes many marginalized women

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