Acts of Assistance: Navigating the Interstices of the British State with the Help of Non-profit Legal Advisers

Abstract

Original citation:Forbess, Alice and James, Deborah (2014) Acts of assistance: navigating the interstices of the British state with the help of non-profit legal advisers.

What's in a vote? Brexit beyond culture wars

“…Women tend to be in closer contact with representatives of the welfare state, including social workers, benefits officers, housing officials, and local government officials (Koch ). Yet they have to jump hurdles, undergo assessments, and fill in endless forms, exposing them to a Kafkaesque welfare bureaucracy (Forbess and James ). Women live in fear of making mistakes and suffering the consequences of being caught: welfare agents can stop benefit payments, housing authorities evict tenants from their homes, and social services move children into foster care.…”

Researching Organisational Imbrications and Interstices

“…As a result, there is a growing scholarly interest in the interfaces within and between different welfare services and cross-boundary activities (Cristofoli et al, 2017). For instance, Forbess and James (2014) show how interstices emerge at the fringes of the public sector and in the tangle of public sector agents, businesses and civil society. Indeed, a lack of coherence or difficulty in connecting different organisational units is a widespread matter of concern where particularly vulnerable citizens are in danger of not receiving the support they need, of 'falling through the cracks' (Bartfeld, 2003;Walsh et al, 2015).…”

“…This includes, but is not limited to, children (Bartfeld, 2003;Delany-Moretlwe et al, 2015;Kemp et al 2009), elderly people (Burns, 2009;Furlotte et al, 2012;Grenier et al, 2016) and people with substance use issues (Delany-Moretlwe 50 B. Bjerge, T. Eule, and K. Elmholdt: A Qualitative Gaze on how Mundane Public Administration Works Qualitative Studies 5(2), pp. 49-56 ©2018 et al, 2015Dohan, Schmidt, and Henderson, 2005;Forbess and James, 2014). These issues are well known, and in more general organisation studies literature the role of interstitial spaces or the betwixt-and-between spaces of formal organisations are recognised as critical for accomplishing organisational tasks (Kellogg, 2009;Furnari, 2014;Mumby, 2005), and yet, the way users may fall short in these spaces and the new trajectories that are re-negotiated or stabilised, are often black-boxed.…”

Re/Making Immigration Policy through Practice

“…A lack of statutory guidance for local authorities on how to approach work with migrants complicates matters further (Price and Spencer 2015). Additionally, legislative changes have increasingly drawn social workers, among others, into policing immigration status and migrants' access to social goods in the UK (Forbess and James 2014;Humphries 2004;Ottosdottir and Evans 2014). While acknowledging the multiple and contradictory pressures facing social workers, I maintain that the case study presented here indicates the profound infl uence of legal consciousness upon the practice of social work with refused asylum seekers and the detrimental impacts thereof.…”

“…Th e state is derived from eff orts to imagine and create state institutions, lobby for or contest policies, interpret and implement categories, and make discretionary decisions on individual cases (Coutin 1998;Dubois 2009;Ellis 2007;Evans 2013;Forbess and James 2014;Gill et al 2015;Jones 2012;Mountz 2010). A state-centric view of immigration status, common in scholarly literature on forced migration (Gill 2010; for an exception, see Mountz 2010), masks the role played by a broad range of people to enact state policies in everyday life.…”