Welfare Reform on the Web (June 2010): Social security - overseas

Lone motherhood, welfare reform and active citizen subjectivity

J. Pulkingham, S. Fuller and P. Kershaw

Critical Social Policy, vol. 30, 2010, p. 267-291

Welfare-to-work policies have become a central priority for governments in Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and Scandinavia. In this phase of neo-liberal governance, primary emphasis is placed on engagement in the market, self-sufficiency and individual responsibility. This paper examines the implications for impoverished lone mothers of the shift to active citizenship in contemporary liberal welfare regimes where governments have adopted an 'earner strategy', treating women primarily as potential employees and only secondarily as carers, using British Columbia as a case study.

Social security and the crisis

R. McKinnon (editor)

International Social Security Review, Vol.63, nos.1/2, 2010, p.1-108

The articles in this special issue explore:

• The negative impact of the global economic crisis of 2008 on the financial health of pension and social security funds
• National policy responses to the crisis, focusing on planned policy and programme responses to attenuate the negative impacts of the crisis
• The likely medium- and longer-term policy implications of the crisis for social security
• The impact of the crisis on social security and social protection in developing countries.