Exploring the Local Implementation of Ontario Works

Lightman, Ernie; Herd, Dean; Mitchell, Andrew

doi:10.1080/19187033.2006.11675104

Cited by 17 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…There is little evidence that any of the three streams of employment programming mandated by Ontario Works offers meaningful skill development or upgrading (Lightman et al 2006). To the contrary, lone mother participants reported that the requirements of workfare are very often quite imprecise and sometimes nonsensical, having to do with adequately demonstrating to a caseworker one's commitment to finding paid work.…”

Section: A Canadian Case Examplementioning

confidence: 99%

Social Exclusion and Double Jeopardy: The Management of Lone Mothers in the Market–State Social Field

Gingrich

2008

Soc Policy Adm

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The popular version of social exclusion has given rise to various forms of welfare-to-work initiatives in most developed capitalist nations. Social inclusion, therefore, is commonly assumed to be achieved through paid work. The delivery of social welfare through employment activation programmes is consequential, as it necessitates an unusual cooperation between the welfare state and the labour market. With a focus on Ontario Works, a relatively mature example of Canada's residualized social welfare services, this article is an empirical analysis of the social space in which the state and the market merge -by design -and the resulting processes and outcomes of social exclusion that operate for women who parent alone. I begin with a brief review of the most popular concept of social exclusion, and the pre-eminent place of paid work in related social policy responses, followed by a consideration of the ideological context producing and reinforced by workfirst programmes. Our attention is turned to a reconfigured notion of social exclusion as process and outcome, spontaneously set in motion and self-perpetuating in the fused market-state social field. Through a case study of lone mother experiences of Ontario Works, the specific ideological practices through which welfare-to-work strategies operate to keep women in their place are described. I argue that the analysis of the market-state as a unified social field -ordered according to the paired ideologies of market neo-liberalism and conservative 'family values' -is necessary for conceiving policy responses that are effective in interrupting the dynamic process-outcome iterations of social exclusion.

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Section: A Canadian Case Examplementioning

confidence: 99%

Social Exclusion and Double Jeopardy: The Management of Lone Mothers in the Market–State Social Field

Gingrich

2008

Soc Policy Adm

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“…A re-examination of provincial-municipal roles and responsibilities resulted in the 1998 Local Service Realignment Act (LSR), which made sweeping changes to provincial-municipal relations in Ontario. These changes resulted in the responsibility for the delivery and funding of a number of social policy programs being moved from the province to municipal governments, while the province retained control of social policy creation and design (Lightman, Herd & Mitchell, 2006;Marquardt, 2007). This transfer of responsibility to the municipalities, however, was simultaneously met with "prescriptive rules, decreased funding, and narrow performance measures" (Lightman, Herd & Mitchell, 2006, p. 120).…”

Section: Multiscalar Welfare State Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 1998, Ontario introduced the Ontario Works program, a compulsory work-first program which reflected a transition form 'passive' income supports to 'active', employment based welfare-to-work strategies (Lightman, Herd & Mitchell, 2006). Directed towards 'individual responsibility' and the promotion of 'self-reliance through employment', Ontario Works aimed to provide temporary financial assistance to those most in need as long as they satisfied obligations of gaining, and retaining, employment (Lightman, Herd & Mitchell, 2006;Ontario Works Act, 1997). To minimize spending and offload social service delivery responsibilities, the province of Ontario also tightened eligibility requirements and made fiscal transfers to the municipalities and nonprofit organizations contingent upon their compliance with Ontario Works terms.…”

Section: Multiscalar Welfare State Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further, with the devolution of primary responsibility for social programs, the federal government also turned a "blind eye to provincial actions that eroded universal access" (Finkel, 2006, p.292). The transformation of social welfare policies at the federal level also resulted in a change in support from passive to active social policies at the provincial scale, such as Ontario, including a transformation of funding from the provinces to the municipalities in the form of support for local welfare-to-work initiatives (Lightman, Herd & Mitchell, 2006).…”

Section: Social Exclusion and Welfare State Reform In Canadamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further, provincial social assistance rates were slashed in the mid-1990s and eligibility 53 requirements tightened, leaving Ontario municipalities to reluctantly pursue the implementation of Ontario Works programming in order to receive funding (Lightman, Mitchell & Herd, 2003). As a result, in an effort to manipulate programming activities to maximize funding, many Ontarian municipalities emphasized taking the shortest route possible to helping individuals engage themselves in the job market, rather than training and promoting long-term human capital development (Lightman, Herd & Mitchell, 2006;Silver, Shields, Wilson & Scholtz, 2005). This placed a greater priority on "rapid labour force attachment through compulsory participation" (Lightman, Herd & Mitchell, 2007, p. 23).…”

Section: Social Exclusion and Welfare State Reform In Canadamentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The United Way/Centraide Ottawa : tackling social exclusion on the ground

Solc¹

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Trauma, Workfare and the Social Contingency of Precarity and Its Sufferings: The Story of Marius, A Street-Youth

Dolson

2014

Cult Med Psychiatry

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Based on ethnographic fieldwork in London, Ontario, Canada, with homeless and street-involved youth in a youth drop-in shelter that I call "At Home", this paper is an ethnographically grounded narrative analysis of interview content and participant observation with a centre focus on my key informant, a youth from Eastern Europe whom I call "Marius". Like many other street youth, Marius lives a life marked by precarity. His daily life is marked by traumatic memories of abandonment and abuse, which has lead to an inability to work; and structural violence facilitated by Ontario's workfare program called Ontario Works, especially its mandate that all "participants" (i.e. those in receipt of social assistance, such as Marius) seek employment or face termination of their social assistance check. For Marius, the recounting of traumatic memories at At Home opened up a shared rhetorical space from which he could narratively align himself vis-à-vis other street youth as a victim of precarity and trauma and therefore absolve himself of the onus to find employment. Regardless of his narrative positioning, he is constantly terminated from Ontario Works for not submitting proof of citizenship and proof of job-seeking activities. In conclusion, the only way for Marius to find any form of solace from his past and the constraints of OW is through isolation: a cultural stance that serves as a coping mechanism, and allows Marius to muddle through each day, all the while holding precarity and its pursuant anxiety and depression at bay.

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Exploring the Local Implementation of Ontario Works

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Social Exclusion and Double Jeopardy: The Management of Lone Mothers in the Market–State Social Field

Social Exclusion and Double Jeopardy: The Management of Lone Mothers in the Market–State Social Field

The United Way/Centraide Ottawa : tackling social exclusion on the ground

Trauma, Workfare and the Social Contingency of Precarity and Its Sufferings: The Story of Marius, A Street-Youth

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