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How do social welfare policies and practices build or undermine
resilience in poor households? An international comparative study
Lead researchers - Professor Margaret Whitehead (Department of
Public Health) & Professor Chris Jones (Department of Social
Policy), University of Liverpool
Co-investigators - Dr Krysia Canvin, University of Liverpool; Dr
Bo Burström & team, Karolinksa Institute, Stockholm
This is a qualitative research project that examines the role of
social welfare policies and practices in either fostering or undermining
resilience and capacity in families facing adversity.
The project has two arms. The first will draw a sample of families
in contact with British social workers, and conduct a series of
in-depth interviews using ethnographic approaches. Families in similar
situations, but with differing apparent trajectories, will be selected
for study, exploring such questions as: why has this family gone
under whereas another has not? What are the facets of resilience
they show in their survival? Why does that resilience sometimes
collapse? What role has contact with the statutory services and
social policies played in buffering or corroding resilience? The
ultimate purpose would be to identify ways in which social welfare
policies and practices could be improved to foster existing strengths
of vulnerable families.
The second arm consists of a parallel study in
Sweden, collecting primary data that would then allow a comparative
analysis of the role of social welfare policies and practices in
the two countries in enhancing resilience. The rationale for this
cross-national arm of the study is built on Whitehead's recent ESRC-funded
work on social welfare policies and lone mothers, which indicated
that poverty may be more damaging to health in Britain than in Sweden.
One hypothesis stemming from these observations is that there may
be aspects of the social and policy context in Britain that add
to and reinforce the negative experience of being poor. Conversely,
there may be other aspects of living in Swedish society that are
supportive for people in poverty, which make the experience of poverty
less stressful and health damaging. This hypothesis will be investigated
through in-depth interviews with family members living in poverty
in Sweden, coupled with comparative policy analysis, carried out
jointly by the British and Swedish teams. Arm One of the project
will last for 36 months, Arm Two for 24 months - starting in Year
Two of the project and then running in parallel with Arm One.
Theoretically, the rationale for the project is
built on the understanding that, for too long, concepts of welfare
dependency and the deficit model in relation to these families have
gone unchallenged. Yet Jones' recent data, for example, reveal that
many clients, despite considerable misfortune, have qualities of
resilience which often go unacknowledged. Instead of pathologizing
them as problems, there is a need to analyse how these families
manage and cope in often dire circumstances. Empirical research
which gives the recipients of welfare an opportunity to speak of
their experiences should provide for more nuanced and sensitive
perspectives on resilience and dependency.
This page last modified
30 November, 2007
by Administrator
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