At Work, At Home? New Geographies of Work and Care-giving under Welfare Reform in the US

1 April 2003

journal article
research article
Published by Taylor & Francis in Space and Polity

Vol. 7 (1) , 75-86
https://doi.org/10.1080/13562570309246

Abstract

This paper examines what is considered work within contemporary US welfare policy and how work relates to care-work. After putting changes to US social welfare policy in the 1990s in context, the paper compares what counts as a work activity under welfare reform. It is argued that 'work' and 'non-work' are implicitly defined in terms of gender, race and space. Through engagement with contemporary feminist social theory (particularly the work of Nancy Fraser), it is argued that within America's new world of welfare, work continues to be defined in terms that are both masculinist and place-based.

Keywords

This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:

Explaining US welfare reform: power, gender, race and the US policy legacy
Critical Social Policy, 2002
FROM THE “WALK FOR ADEQUATE WELFARE” TO THE “MARCH FOR OUR LIVES”: WELFARE RIGHTS ORGANIZING IN THE 1960S AND 1990S
Urban Geography, 2001
NATIONAL MYTHS, STATE POLICY, AND COMMUNITY-DIRECTED MEDIA: REPRESENTATIONAL POLITICS AND THE RECONFIGURATION OF WELFARE
Urban Geography, 2001
BETWEEN WELFARE AND WORK: THE ROLES OF SOCIAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SOCIAL REGULATION OF LABOR MARKETS AND REGULATION OF THE POOR
Urban Geography, 2001
Place and the Politics of Virtue: Clerical work, corporate anxiety, and changing meanings of public womanhood in early twentieth-century Montreal
Gender, Place & Culture, 1998
The Lady and the Tramp (II): Feminist Welfare Politics, Poor Single Mothers, and the Challenge of Welfare Justice
Feminist Studies, 1998
On the Links between Home and Work: Family‐Household Strategies in a Buoyant Labour Market
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 1991
Time, space, and the occupational segregation of women: a critique of human capital theory
Geoforum, 1991
Space, Time, and Renegotiating Motherhood: An Exploration of the Domestic Workplace
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 1990
INTEGRATING HOME and WAGE WORKPLACE: WOMEN'S DAILY LIVES IN A CANADIAN SUBURB
Canadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes, 1989