Jennifer Mays

Feminist disability theory: domestic violence against women with a disability

Women with a disability continue to experience social oppression and domestic violence as a consequence of gender and disability dimensions. Current explanations of domestic violence and disability inadequately explain several features that lead women who have a disability to experience violent situations. This article incorporates both disability and material feminist theory as an alternative explanation to the dominant approaches (psychological and sociological traditions) of conceptualising domestic violence. This paper is informed by a study which was concerned with examining the nature and perceptions of violence against women with a physical impairment. The emerging analytical framework integrating material feminist interpretations and disability theory provided a basis for exploring gender and disability dimensions. Insight was also provided by the women who identified as having a disability in the study and who explained domestic violence in terms of a gendered and disabling experience. The article argues that material feminist interpretations and disability theory, with their emphasis on gender relations, disablism and poverty, should be used as an alternative tool for exploring the nature and consequences of violence against women with a disability.

Countering disablism: an alternative universal income support system based on egalitarianism

The long-term vision of economic security and social participation for people with a disability held by disability activists and policy-makers has not been realized on a global scale. This is despite the implementation of various poverty alleviation initiatives by international and national governments. Indeed within advanced Western liberal democracies, the inequalities and poverty gaps have widened rather than closed. This article is based on findings from a historical-comparative policy and discourse analysis of disability income support system in Australia and the Basic Income model. The findings suggest that a model such as Basic Income, grounded in principles of social citizenship, goes some way to maintaining an adequate level of subsistence for people with a disability. This article concludes by presenting some challenges and a commitment to transforming income support policy.

Disability, Citizenship, and Basic Income: Forging a New Alliance for a Non-disabling Society

In this era of neoliberalism, standardization, and cost-cutting of social security regimes, calls for alternative proposals of income support, as in the basic income, have been sidelined in the quest for maintaining dominant targeted models. Western democracies, including Australia, have pursued welfare reforms as one way to manage the perceived challenges associated with global economic crisis, high unemployment, and economic growth (Cantillon & Van Lancker, 2013; Collard, 2013; Parker Harris, Owen, & Gould, 2012). Notions of justice and fairness in poverty response for people with a disability tend to be subsumed under neoliberal and neoconservative reforms. Given the interaction between the disability dimension and widening inequalities and poverty, income poverty is recognized as a key site of oppression and social exclusion for people with a disability (Palmer, 2011).

Role of Relational Case Management in Transitioning from Poverty

ABSTRACT One-off financial assistance through emergency relief provides a short-term intervention to immediate material crisis. However, recurrent instances of clients accessing this type of assistance points to the ineffectiveness of managing financial hardship without addressing the causes of long-term poverty. This article presents findings from an external process evaluation of the Salvation Army relational case management model known as Doorways. A mixed-method design was implemented, consisting of semistructured interviews, observations, and document analysis, as well as Client Satisfaction and Wellbeing Survey. Across the seven research sites semistructured interviews were conducted with 45 clients and nine case managers, and 30 client surveys were completed. Three themes will be discussed: the Doorways philosophy; the flexible service delivery approach; and client capacity building and continuity of care. Findings illustrated the effectiveness of a relational case management approach and reaffirm the central role of relationships in transforming the lives of people experiencing poverty. IMPLICATIONS The quality of relationship between case managers and their clients plays an integral role in transforming the lives of people experiencing long-term or situational financial disadvantage. Service delivery requires a relational and flexible approach to adequately tailor support to the individual and contextual needs of clients.

Neoliberal frontiers and economic insecurity: is basic income a solution?

Australia and New Zealand have similarities and differences in regard to their cultural, social, and economic makeup. Both countries share a colonial past, dispossession of the indigenous populations, and common features regarding the model of social protection that developed during the nineteenth and twentieth century. In comparative welfare state studies the two countries are often grouped together, along with the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, in what some scholars refer to as a “liberal welfare state” model. This welfare state model describes the strong preference for market-based solutions in meeting social needs (commodification), a residual safety net, and a punitive approach to poverty (Esping-Andersen, 2000; Grover & Piggott, 2013). Other scholars have suggested that the characterization of Australia and New Zealand as liberal welfare states downplays some unique characteristics and that it is more accurate to talk about Australia and New Zealand as having developed a “wage earner’s welfare state” (Castles, 1984). The notion of a wage earner’s welfare state emphasizes the central role given to high minimum wages in redistribution, a generous social wage, and a robust system of industrial rights. These aspects were supported by the substantial use of protective tariffs to bolster wage levels in manufacturing, urban service, and a strong concern with the regulation of labor supply through controlled migration (Castles, 1994).