Through an analysis of speeches by government ministers, documents and regulations, this article examines the Australian national government's surveillance of unemployed people through what is known as Activity Testing, and more specifically as Mutual Obligation. It seeks to merge the social policy analysis of Mutual Obligation with a surveillance perspective in order to delve deeper into the underlying nature of the policy and its implications for people who are unemployed. It does this by 1. outlining the neo-liberal political theory underlying these policies; 2. illustrating the nature and extent of surveillance of people in receipt of income support, and 3. employing Foucault's concepts of the technologies of domination and the self to highlight the controlling and coercive aspects of Mutual Obligation in achieving certain of the Government's political and policy objectives. In doing so, the analysis will make visible something of the power exerted over the disadvantaged while subject to such surveillance.
Michel Foucault analysed the origins and social function served by institutions such as the prison and the clinic, explored the links between knowledge and power, and the body as a location or site of such social power. In this article, Foucault's analysis is applied to an Australian program for people who are homeless. After outlining a theoretical framework which emphases Foucault's theme of increasing surveillance being used for the purposes of greater regulation and control, this article analyses the changes that have occurred in the program. It is argued that initially the program was intended to assist non-government agencies to provide a range of services, including short-term crisis accommodation services, after which clients would move to independent housing. However, due to the lack of affordable and appropriate houses for clients to enter after their stay in agencies, clients have been forced to stay in funded agencies for longer than is otherwise necessary. Among other things, this program has adapted by providing more short-to-medium term accommodation and case management for clients which, in turn, has led to an extension of the time clients remain in agencies and greater intensity of service provision. It is argued that this has resulted in increased potential for surveillance, control and regulation.
Housing, Theory and Society 2004 21: 145-154. In contrast to the international research (particularly in the United Kingdom and North America), much of the Australian literature regarding homelessness to date omits the perspective of people who are homeless. In contributing to the fledgling Australian literature in the field, the following article adopts a secondary approach to the data analysis of original research. When analysed, the voices of homeless women from an agency in Adelaide, South Australia exhibit elements of both Foucault's technologies of domination and the self. While the results show that the women do have a powerful sense of the broader external issues exerted on them (reflecting both technologies of domination and the self), the analysis also reveals ambiguities in their responses. Apparent in the voice of homeless women is a sense of personal agency which appears to be absent in Foucault's technologies. By considering the viewpoints of homeless women, various policy implications can also be drawn. Indeed, this is one of the motivations of the article, namely to inject into policy debate and development the voices of the people most adversely affected by it. The policy implications of the women's voices centre around the desire to be included rather than remain on the margins, the need for supportive relationships, the necessity to take small steps to independent living, and the need for more affordable, independent housing.
The Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) provides services for homeless people. After demonstrating that the Program is intended to assist people to move on to independent living, the following paper examines the implications of remaining in SAAP services for longer than would otherwise be necessary because there is no where else to go. In particular, the broader social functions of SAAP are examined in the light of the work of Michel Foucault. It is suggested that SAAP serves a specific social function in exerting socially approved power over SAAP users who are forced to remain in SAAP services for longer than would otherwise be required if affordable and appropriate accommodation were available.
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