Tiffany Taylor

Contrasts and classtalk: A critical discourse analysis of welfare-to-work program managers

Historically, discourse about welfare in the United States has changed from a language of ‘need’ to a culture of ‘dependency’. Adopting ‘dependency’ as a frame to construct the public opinion of welfare, workers help maintain the current punitive welfare state. In this study, we use critical discourse analysis to examine how county program managers in Ohio, USA (N = 69) use several discursive techniques to legitimate their identities as good workers while neutralizing negative connotations associated with administering welfare policy. Further, we find managers use discursive techniques of contrast to heighten boundaries between three pairings: (1) ‘generational’ and ‘situational’ clients, (2) clients and non-clients, and (3) welfare workers and clients. Managers engage in ‘classtalk’ in their contrasts in a way that blames the poor through contrasts with others with ‘middle-class values’.

Differentiation and Integration of Welfare-to-Work Service Delivery in North Carolina

Under Temporary Aid to Needy Families, county social service agencies determine how to work with government and nonprofit agencies to achieve Work First program goals. We use classical organization theory to examine how levels of differentiation and integration in county-level inter-organizational relationships affect client outcomes. We combine interviews with Work First program managers in 34 counties with publicly available data. Our findings do not support classical organization theory formulations, but suggest TANF participants benefit from the availability of a variety of services and options within a county, and from the coordination of those services.

Challenges of Multiracial Antiracist Activism: Racial Consciousness and Chief Wahoo:

We explore how white activists’ racial identity struggles might disrupt effective antiracist action in multiracial organizations. Drawing on data collected through participant observation and interviews, we examine the struggles of a small, multiracial antiracist organization that protests the Cleveland baseball franchise’s ‘Indians’ name and Chief Wahoo mascot. White activists’ racial consciousness, or awareness of white racism and white privilege, compels them to participate in the group; their ways of participating, however, ultimately may hamper the organizational effectiveness of the Committee of 500 Years of Dignity and Resistance. Specifically, white activists’ racial consciousness makes them reluctant to adopt necessary leadership roles. Borrowing from literature on white racism, white racial consciousness, and multiracial organizing, we illustrate the complex nature and potential pitfalls of multiracial alliances formed to protest racism in the United States.

Implementing Welfare-to-Work: Program Managers’ Identities and Service Delivery in North Carolina

Using telephone interviews, we examine the professional identities of welfare-to-work managers in North Carolina counties and explore how their identities correlate with county characteristics and the structuring of services. We find social work and efficiency engineer approaches to be distinct and influential with the street-level bureaucrat often conflicted, caught between helping and policing clients. In our study, conflicted managers often do daily casework on top of their managerial responsibilities. Although social work identities were the most common, efficiency engineer and conflicted identities were associated with more punitive and eligibility-focused routines. Overall, program managers’ identities correspond to how services are structured for clients within the constraints of the federal welfare-to-work program.

Program Barriers and Challenges to Self-Sufficiency: A Qualitative Analysis of Ohio Welfare-to-Work Program Manager Identity:

This research examines the ways in which Ohio Works First (OWF) program managers respond to the bureaucratic constraints of implementing welfare-to-work programs. Using qualitative data collected from telephone interviews with program managers in 69 of Ohio’s 88 counties, we build on prior research that examines caseworker identity and case management (Watkins-Hayes, 2009) by investigating how managers view the challenges and program barriers to self-sufficiency for cash assistance clients in Ohio. We find three distinct manager identities and responses to these challenges and barriers. First, following Watkins-Hayes (2009), we find ‘social work’ identified managers are more holistic in their approach and focused on structural barriers to self-sufficiency. A second type of manager – ‘efficiency engineers’ – are far more rules-minded and focused on clients’ individual barriers. Third, similar to existing research (Taylor and Seale, 2013), we find support for another category of managers – ‘conflicted’ – who discuss both structural and individual-level barriers to self-sufficiency.

Becoming a Good Welfare Manager: Paternalistic Oppressive Othering and Neoliberal Boundary Maintenance

ABSTRACT Using data from telephone interviews with 69 county welfare-to-work program managers in Ohio, we examine how individuals rely on paternalism and neoliberal ideology to construct themselves as “good workers” through two processes of identity work: oppressive othering and boundary maintenance. Program managers construct themselves as good workers through a process we call “paternalistic oppressive othering” in which managers draw on the dominant oppressive ideology of paternalism to present themselves as helpful. We also find managers draw on neoliberal ideology to legitimate the program and their work through a process we call “neoliberal boundary maintenance.”

Gender composition and share of management: Tipping points in US workplaces, 1980–2005

Abstract This paper examines how concepts of gendered organizations, tokenism and the glass escalator affect women’s share of management. Specifically, we examine how the gender composition of workplaces affects women’s share of management in 195,534 workplaces using EEO-1 report data collected from the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1980 until 2005. The EEO-1 data allow us to explore the effects of gender composition on women’s share of management net of labor market change, industrial change, organizational determinants, and changes in workplace segregation using workplace-level data. We draw on past research to identify potential composition levels—tipping points—in which women have more or less share of management. Our findings suggest that across all compositions, ranging from women comprising less than 15% to over 85% of the workplace, larger percentages of the non-management women are associated with greater shares of women in management. Findings offer little support for the glass escalators hypothesis extended to workplaces, but once further contextualized, the findings do suggest that workplaces are gendered in such a way that tokenism works differently for men and women. Thus, our paper adds to the body of research on gender composition and further illustrates the need to determine under which conditions these social processes operate.

Welfare and the Culture of Conservatism: A Contextual Analysis of Welfare-to-Work Participation in North Carolina

ABSTRACT Welfare participation varies across the United States due to a myriad of welfare program differences specific to geographical locations. The purpose of this study is to examine Work First participation rates among the eligible poor utilizing a county-level analysis of North Carolina. Findings suggest the proportion of poor single mothers, region, county political orientation, and rates of disability receipt affect program participation. Findings highlight the importance of examining the welfare program at the county level and the dynamics of welfare participation, particularly in terms of how those in power affect access to social services among families in need.

Welfare-to-Work Doesn’t Really Work

Two analyses of welfare policy as it has played out for over a decade shows how welfare-to-work programs fail to meet the basic needs of their participants and their communities.