Abstract

PRO-MARKET, NON-MARKET:
THE DUAL NATURE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE IN SOCIAL SERVICES DELIVERY

Donna Baines

Adopted in whole or in part in a number of Canadian provinces, New Public Management (NPM) is not merely a set of neutral and technical public management strategies. Rather, NPM is part of the creation of a minimalist, residual welfare state criss-crossed by pro-market, non-market practices. Drawing on themes emerging from original data gathered as part of a study of social service restructuring, this article elaborates some of the pro-market, non-market processes that dominate state-run and non-profit sections of the Canadian social services sector. Special attention is paid to two processes that have had unexpected but major impacts on the deskilling, disciplining and narrowing of social services work, namely the mandatory licensure and specialisation of some workers.

Bio

Donna Baines teaches in Labour Studies and Social Work at McMaster University, Canada. Current research includes a WSIB funded study of stress, workload and violence in the social services and a SSHRC funded, three province study of the experience of front-line social service workers with restructuring. Baines’ work on radical social work has been published recently in the British Journal of Social Work, Race, Gender and Class and the Journal of Progressive Human Services. She has also recently published articles on marginalized workers in journals such as Studies in Political Economy and Atlantis, A Journal of Women’s Studies.

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