P55 - The making of target publics for welfare policies. A multilevel approach.
PANEL Organizers
• Lorenzo Barrault-Stella (CNRS - SAGE)
• Pierre-Edouard Weill (UMR de Droit Comparé de Paris - CNRS)
SUMMARY
Western societies are characterized by the decline of the universalist welfare state’s model (Pierson, 1994; Clayton, Pontusson, 1998). Social policies are even more oriented in solving issues that are specific to « target populations » (Ingram, Schneider, 1991). The question we address is how are these target-publics identified and become the effective matter of public action?
Top-to-bottom approaches of welfare policies dominate the field of research and a phenomenon of individualization is largely observed (Ferge, 1997; Dufour & al., 2003; Achterberg & al., 2013). Nevertheless, the growing trend in gathering data on welfare recipients invites us to analyse the making of social policies in a more inductive way. Moreover, Foucault (2004) demonstrates how control of social risks’ technologies are based on the dynamics of populations – and not of individuals, in order for the risks to fade out. We can then question the concrete mechanics of population targeting which leads to the process of social policies’ individualization.
The analysis of the making of social policies’ target-publics can be led on different levels:
- How policymakers - at an international, national or local level - define target publics and with which juridical or statistical instruments (Lascoumes, Le Galès, 2007) ?
- How the street level bureaucrats (Lipsky, 1980) take into account of target-populations that are categorized at the superior level? Do the interactions with welfare recipients redefine the target-publics?
- Which are the perceptions of the welfare potential beneficiaries who are dealing with these categories of target-publics? Which are the different kind of behaviors and resistances (Scott, 2009) observed?
This panel aims at analyzing contemporary welfare policies through the perspective of the making of their target publics. The communications focus on various domains of welfare policies in different contexts, through diversified theoretical approaches and empirical methodologies of investigation.
Keywords:
Target publics ; Welfare policies ; Multilevel approach ; Juridical and statistical instruments; Perceptions and behaviors.
ROOM
Faculty, E2.16
Session 1: The targeting of publics from the higher reaches of governement... 10/07/2015 : 09:00-10:30
Chair: Lorenzo Barrault-Stella, CNRS (SAGE), lorenzobarrault@yahoo.fr
Discussant: Vincent Dubois, University of Strasburg (SAGE) vincent.dubois@misha.fr
• « How central is the middle? Middle class discourses and the transformations of welfare State »
Marlon Barbehon, Michael Haus (Heidelberg University, Germany)
• « How does the HMRC affect the financial hardship of claimants? A critical discourse analysis of targeting in the UK tax credits system »
Sara Cathryn Closs-Davies, Koen Bartels (Bangor University, United Kingdom),
• « Targeting “immigrant women” through the categories of motherhood and citizenship (Finland and France) »
Linda Haapajarvi (ERIS, EHESS)
• « Targeting mothers? A two phase study of the implementation of activation policies in Australia »
Cosmo Howard (Griffith University, Australia), Michel Brady (University of Queensland, Australia)
Session 2: ... to the most underprivileged groups of the social world : 10/07/2015 : 11:00-12:30
Chair: Pierre Edouard Weill, Université Paris 1 (UMR de Droit comparé de Paris - CNRS), pierreedouard.weill@gmail.com
Discussant: Anne-Cécile Douillet, University of Lille (CERAPS), anne-cecile.douillet@univ-lille2.fr
• « The intermediaries of public housing in a postcolonial context: street level bureaucrats trajectories and remit in Mayotte »
Violaine Girard, Mlaili Condro, Elise Palomares (Dysola, Rouen University),
• « The making of target publics in the era of social polices individualization: from groups to individuals? A case study of policy making in the French Administration of low-rent housing »
Marine Bourgeois (CEE, Sciences Po)
• « How does the vice squad compose its target population? From the gender of policing to the gender of law »
Gwenaelle Mainsant (CESDIP, Saint Quentin en Yvelines University)
• « Implementing welfare policies: who is the real target? The case of users’ rights in specialized welfare institutions »
Vianney Schlegel (CLERSE, Lille University)
