Exploring the local implementation of Ontario works

Studies in Political Economy

Volumn , Issue 78, 2006, Pages 119-143

  Lightman, Ernie ^a,b   Herd, Dean ^b   Mitchell, Andrew ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

^b Social Assistance in the New Economy SANE Project   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33846159453     PISSN: 07078552     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (85)

1. D. Herd, "Rhetoric and Retrenchment: Ontario's 'Common Sense' Welfare Reform, " Benefits 34/10/2 (2002), pp. 105-110;
2. D. Herd, A. Mitchell, and E. Lightman, "Rituals of Degradation: Administration as Policy in the Ontario Works Program," Journal of Social Policy and Administration 39/1 (2005), pp. 65-79;
3. E. Lightman, A. Mitchell, and D. Herd, "One Year On: Tracking the Experiences of Current and Former Welfare Recipients in Toronto," Journal of Poverty: Innovations on Social, Political and Economic Inequalities 9/4 (2005), pp. 5-26;
4. E. Lightman, A. Mitchell, and D. Herd, "Workfare in Toronto: More of the Same?" Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare 32/4 (2005), pp. 65-76;
5. E. Lightman, A. Mitchell, and D. Herd, "Welfare to What? After Ontario Works in Toronto," International Social Security Review 58/4 (2005), pp. 95-106.
6. C. Gorlick and G. Brethour, "Welfare to Work Programs in Canada: Policy Intentions and Program Realities" (London, Ontario: University of Western Ontario, 2002);
7. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, The Battle Against Exclusion: Social Assistance in Australia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom (Paris, OECD, 1998);
8. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, The Battle Against Exclusion: Social Assistance in Canada and Switzerland (Paris: OECD, 1998);
9. I. Lodomel and H. Trickey, "An Offer You Can't Refuse": Workfare in International Perspective (Bristol: Policy Press, 2001).
10. D. Herd, "Rhetoric and Retrenchment..."
11. D. Herd, "Connecting Spaces: Trans-Atlantic Policy Transfer and the Re-regulation of the Urban Poor," Unpublished PhD Thesis (Manchester: University of Manchester, 2001).
12. R. Mahon, "Yet Another 'R'? The Redesign and Rescaling of Welfare Regimes," Paper prepared for presentation at the 2003 Workshop of the International Sociology Association, Research Group 19, Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy (Toronto: University of Toronto, 21-24 August 2003).
13. N. Brenner, "Beyond State-Centrism? Space, Territoriality and Geographical Scale in Globalization Studies," Theory and Society 28 (1999), p. 51.
14. N. Brenner, "The Limits to Scale? Methodological Reflections on Scalar Structuration," Progress in Human Geography 15/4 (2001), pp. 525-548;
15. E. Swyngedouw, "Neither Global Nor Local: 'Glocalization and the Politics of Scale," in K. Cox, (ed.), Spaces of Globalization: Reasserting the Power of the Local (New York/London: Guilford/Longman, 1997), pp. 137-166.
16. D. Delaney and H. Leitner, "The Political Construction of Scale," Political Geography 16/2 (1997), p. 93.
17. Brenner, "The Limits to Scale?...";
18. Brenner, "Beyond State-Centrism?";
19. A. Herod, "The Production of Scale in United States Labor Relations," Area 23/1 (1991), pp. 82-88;
20. N. Smith, "Homeless/Global: Scaling Places," in J. Bird, B. Curtis, T. Putnam, G. Robertson, and L. Tickner, (eds.), Mapping The Futures: Local Cultures, Global Change (New York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 87-119;
21. Swyngedouw, "Neither Global Nor Local,"
22. Smith, "Homeless/Global: Scaling Places..."
23. Brenner, "The Limits to Scale?..."
24. J. Peck, "Political Economies of Scale: Fast Policy, Interscalar Relations and Neoliberal Workfare," Economic Geography 78/3 (2002), pp. 331-360.
25. Mahon, "Yet Another 'R'?..."
26. Brenner, "Beyond State-Centrism?..."
27. N. Brenner and N. Theodore, "Preface: From the 'New Localism' to the Spaces of Neoliberalism," Antipode 34/3 (2002), pp. 341-347;
28. J. Peck and A. Tickell, "Neoliberalizing Space," Antipode 34/3 (2002), pp. 380-404.
29. Brenner, "Beyond State-Centrism?...";
30. B. Jessop, "Post-Fordism and the State," in A. Amin, (ed.), Post-Fordism: A Reader (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1994), pp. 251-279.
31. Mahon, "Yet Another 'R'?..."
32. Herd, "Connecting Spaces..."
33. J. Peck, Workfare States (New York: Guilford Press, 2001).
34. J. Peck, "Political Economies of Scale: Fast Policy, Interscalar Relations and Neoliberal Workfare," Economic Geography 78/3 (2002), pp. 331-360.
35. Brenner and Theodore, "Preface: From the 'New Localism..."
36. N. Theodore and J. Peck, "Welfare-to-Work: National Problems, Local Solutions?" Critical Social Policy 19 (1999), pp. 485-510.
37. Brenner and Theodore, "Preface: From the "New Localism..."
38. B. Jessop, State Theory: Putting Capitalist States in their Place (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990);
39. Peck, Workfare States...
40. Jessop, State Theory ... ;
41. Peck, Workfare States...
42. The research consisted of 34 in-depth interviews with local and provincial key informants, four focus groups with Ontario Works "front line" staff, four focus groups with Ontario Works employment program participants, and 10 "observations" of group information sessions and employment supports programs. A number of companion papers, which provide insight into the emerging shape and nature of employment programs on the ground, are available at .
43. S. Bashevkin, Welfare Hot Buttons: Women, Work and Social Policy Reform (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002);
44. Gorlick and Brethour, "Welfare to Work Programs...";
45. S. McBride and J. Shields, Dismantling a Nation: The Transition to Corporate Rule in Canada (Halifax: Fernwood, 1997);
46. L. Vosko, "Mandatory 'Marriage' or Obligatory Waged Work: Social Assistance and Single Mothers in Wisconsin and Ontario," in S. Bashevkin, (ed.), Women's Work is Never Done: Comparative Studies in Care-Giving and Social Policy Reform (New York: Routledge, 2003), pp. 165-199.
47. Mahon, "Yet Another 'R'?..."
48. J. Jenson, "'Different' but not 'Exceptional': Canada's Permeable Fordism," Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 26/1 (1989), pp. 69-94.
49. E. Lightman, Social Policy in Canada (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2003).
50. L. Pal, "The Fall and Rise of Developmental UI Funds," Canadian Public Policy 9 (1983), pp. 81-93.
51. P. Graefe, "State Restructuring, Social Assistance and Canadian Intergovernmental Relations: Same Scales, New Tune," Paper presented at conference Towards a Political Economy of Scale (Toronto: York University, 5 February 2005).
52. J. Pulkingham and G. Ternowetsky, "Neo-liberalism and Retrenchment: Employment, Universality, Safety-net Provisions and a Collapsing Canadian Welfare State," in D. Broad and W. Antony, (eds.), Citizens or Consumers? Social Policy in a Market Society (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 1999), pp. 84-98.
53. Bashevkin, Welfare Hot Buttons...
54. U. Critoph, "Who Wins, Who Loses - The Real Story of the Transfer of Training to the Provinces and the Impact on Women" in M. Cohen, (ed.), Training the Excluded for Work: Access and Equity for Women, Immigrants, First Nations, Youth and People with Low Income (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2003).
55. S. McBride, "The Political Economy of Training in Canada," Paper presented at Trade Unions and the Training Dilemma, Second Annual Conference of the Labour Education and Training Research Network (Toronto: York University, 24-26 May 1998).
56. B. Graham and E. Lightman, "The Crunch: Financing Ontario's Social Programs," in T. Hunsley, (ed.), Social Polity in the Global Economy (Kingston, Ontario: Queen's University, School of Policy Studies, 1992).
57. Critoph, "Who Wins, Who Loses..."
58. Pulkingham and Ternowetsky, "Neo-liberalism and retrenchment..."
59. Critoph, "Who Wins, Who Loses..."
60. Peck and Theodore, "Beyond 'Employability...,"
61. M. Cohen, (ed.), Training the Excluded for Work...
62. Graefe, "State Restructuring..."
63. P.M. Evans, "Linking Welfare to Jobs: Workfare, Canadian Style," in A. Sayeed, (ed.), Workfare: Does It Work? Is It Fair? (Montreal: Institute for Research on Public Policy, 1995), pp. 75-104;
64. Lightman, Social Policy in Canada;
65. E. Shragge, (ed.), Workfare: Ideology for a New Underclass (Toronto: Garamond Press, 1997).
66. G. Boychuk, Patchworks of Purpose: The Development of Provincial Social Assistance Regimes in Canada (Montréal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998).
67. Pulkingham and Ternowetsky, "Neo-liberalism and retrenchment..."
68. Toronto, Toronto Social Services' Employment Assistance Renewal Strategy (Toronto: City of Toronto, 2004).
69. Ibid.
70. Lightman, Mitchell, and Herd, "Welfare to What?..."
71. Toronto, Update on Ontario Works Employment Assistance Programs and Services, Attachments 3 (Toronto: City of Toronto, 2001).
72. Regional Municipality of Niagara, Innovative Placement Opportunities for Ontario Works Participants Report to Community and Health Services Committee, COM 32-2002 (Niagara: Regional Municipality of Niagara, 2002).
73. Region of Peel, Ontario Works in Peel: 2003-2005 Service Plan (Peel: Region of Peel, 2003).
74. Region of Peel, Ontario Works 2004 Service Strategy Business Plan (Peel: Region of Peel, 2004).
75. Toronto, Update on Ontario Works, p. 6.
76. Toronto, The Evolution of Ontario Works: Critical Issues for Service Delivery (Toronto: City of Toronto, 2003), p. 4.
77. Regional Municipality of Niagara, Financial Pressures in the Social Assistance and Employment Opportunities Program, Report to Community and Health Services Committee, COM 47-2002 (Niagara: Regional Municipality of Niagara, 2002), p. 4.
78. Toronto, Living the Vision: Report to the Community (Toronto: City of Toronto, 2002).
79. Regional Municipality of Niagara, Financial Pressures, p. 7.
80. D. Herd, Mitchell, and Lightman, "Rituals of Degradation..."
81. Toronto, Ontario Works Service Delivery Model (Toronto: City of Toronto, 2000).
82. Toronto, Toronto Social Services' Employment Assistance Renewal Strategy.
83. Ottawa, Service Delivery Model Issues and Financial Implications Regarding Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Programme, Report to Health, Recreation and Social Services Committee (Ottawa: City of Ottawa), p. 2.
84. Regional Municipality of Niagara, (Niagara: Regional Municipality of Niagara, 2002).
85. Herd, Mitchell, and Lightmarn, "Rituals of Degradation..."