Britishness Outsourced: State Conduits, Brokers and the British Citizenship Test

Abstract

This article explores the role of two different types of organisations which act as brokers on behalf of the British state in the citizenship test process. Situating these organisations' emergence within a neoliberal British state characterised by its 'dispersal', it shows that contemporary configurations of the state, market and third sector mean that new and sometimes unexpected actors take on state-like roles. The ambiguous position of these different organisations means that while the reach of the neoliberal state is more diffuse and opaque than ever, clear boundaries between state and non-state realms do continue to exist. Paradoxically, therefore, the blurring of boundaries which characterises the neoliberal state is also accompanied by the hardening of borders between state and non-state realms. This reinforcement of boundaries can appear both to increase state power and to challenge it.

The Guardians of the Welfare State: Universal Credit, Welfare Control and the Moral Economy of Frontline Work in Austerity Britain

“…Some frontline workers are directly employed by the local authority to help struggling individuals cope with the range of welfare reforms implemented as part of the government’s austerity package. Others work in the third sector to which the government has outsourced many of its traditional responsibilities: there are case workers hired by housing associations that administer the bulk of the remaining social housing stock (Wilde, 2020); those sitting in advice centres (Forbess and James, 2017b; Kirwan, 2016; McDermot, 2013) and businesses (Tuckett, 2020); and numerous individuals attached to churches (Davey, 2020), foodbanks (Garthwaite, 2016; Purdam et al, 2016) and community centres (Koch, 2018).…”