Conditionality, activation, and welfare-to-work: street-level perspectives on policy and practice

“激活”和“条件性”政策是国际福利改革议程的核心。在英国，这些政策是正在向普遍信贷过渡的核心特征，通过这种过渡，这些政策正在扩大到涵盖新的索赔人类别，包括那些已经就业和申请在职福利的人。在这个奖学金期间，我将专注于出版工作，根据我的研究，这将有助于学者了解这些变化。我将继续写一本书，突出我在实地研究中收集的前线福利实践的丰富和详细的记录。我还将发表几篇针对不同学术受众的期刊文章，以详细了解这些政策如何在"实地“运作，加强对政策意图和政策实践之间差距的理解。这些出版物将主张，如果我们要充分理解这些政策对人们意味着什么，以及它们是如何产生的，就需要关注这些“街头”空间和做法。在成为学者之前，我在各种一线服务部门工作了几年;首先是政府资助的福利工作计划的工作教练，后来是无家可归和毒品和酒精治疗服务的支持工作者。这两个角色以不同的方式使我参与了正在进行的福利改革的主要进程。作为一名工作教练，我直接参与了“激活”和“行为条件”的一线实施-根据这些政策，领取福利的权利取决于申请人“积极求职”或“工作准备”的努力。有争议的是，不参加或不符合这些方案的要求可能导致严厉和可能长期的福利制裁。作为一名支持工作者，我经常发现自己在办公桌的另一边，帮助人们与快速变化的福利制度进行谈判。这个奖学金建立在我的博士研究的基础上，我回到这些街头空间，研究福利申请人和监督他们索赔的街头官僚之间的日常遭遇。在做这项研究，我有兴趣在生产经验为基础的知识，如何政策的“激活”和“条件”的实施，以及严格的分析，这些政策意味着人们在实践中。因此，我的工作试图理解-概念和经验-街头一级的动态和正在进行的福利改革的结果及其规范和伦理基础。它还旨在为政策制定者，从业人员和更广泛的公众提供必要的知识，以了解这一不断变化的政策领域。在此期间，我将巩固我对这一主题的现有研究，使其研究成果不仅可供学术界使用，还可供政策制定者、从业者和更广泛的公众使用。我的研究重点是实施和实践，为政策制定者和从业者提供重要的见解。在奖学金期间，我将与关键的政策利益相关者一起工作，以影响未来的政策制定和服务设计。在谢菲尔德，我将与工作和养老金部密切合作，为一线实践提供基于证据的分析。我将举办一系列讲习班，向负责制定政策的人提供街头政策分析的见解。在苏格兰，新下放的一些福利政策领域的权力为直接影响政策设计和实践提供了独特的机会。在苏格兰的社会保障局工作，我将建立在我的研究见解，并开发一个实用的工具包，用于就业服务的发展。通过这些活动，奖学金旨在对福利政策和服务产生具体的影响，基于强有力的证据，专业知识和街头分析。

Policies of 'activation' and 'conditionality' are at the heart of the international welfare reform agenda. In the UK these policies are central features of the ongoing transition to Universal Credit, through which they are being extended to cover new categores of claimant, including those already employed and claiming in-work benefits. During this fellowship I will focus on publishing work, based on my research, which will help academics understand such changes. I will progress a book foregrounding the rich and detailed accounts of frontline welfare practice gathered during my field research. I will also publish several journal articles aimed at diverse academic audiences in order to contribute detailed knowledge of how such policies operate 'on the ground', enhancing understanding of what happens in the gap between policy intention and policy practice. These publications will argue for the need to attend to such 'street-level' spaces and practices if we are to fully understand what such policies mean for people and how they are produced.Before becoming an academic I worked for several years in various frontline services; first as a work coach on government-funded welfare-to-work schemes, and later as a support worker in homelessness and drug and alcohol treatment services. In different ways, both these roles involved me in major processes of ongoing welfare reform. As a work coach I was directly involved in the frontline implementation of 'activation' and 'behavioural conditionality' - policies whereby entitlement to benefits is made conditional upon the 'active job-seeking' or 'work-preparation' efforts of claimants. Controversially, failure to participate or to meet the requirements of such programmes can result in harsh and potentially lengthy benefit sanctions. As a support worker I frequently found myself on the other side of the desk, helping people to negotiate their encounters with a rapidly changing benefit system. This fellowship builds on my PhD research, which returned to these street-level spaces to study everyday encounters between benefit claimants and the street-level bureaucrats who monitor their claim. In doing this research I was interested in producing empirically grounded knowledge of how policies of 'activation' and 'conditionality' are implemented, and the rigorous analysis of what such policies mean to people in practice. As such my work seeks to understand - conceptually and empirically - the street-level dynamics and outcomes of ongoing welfare reform and their normative and ethical basis. It also seeks to provide policy-makers, practitioners, and the wider public with the knowledge necessary to understand this changing policy field. During this fellowship I will consolidate my existing research on this topic, making its findings available to academics but also to the policy-makers, practitioners, and the wider public.With its focus on implementation and practice, my research provides crucial insights for policy makers and practitioners. During the fellowship I will be working alongside key policy stakeholders to influence future policy development and service design. In Sheffield I will work closely with the Department for Work and Pensions, to provide evidence-based analysis of frontline practice. I will convene a series of workshops making the insights of street-level policy analysis available to those responsible for shaping policy. In Scotland newly devolved powers over some areas of welfare policy provide a unique opportunity to directly impact policy design and practice. Working the Social Security Agency in Scotland I will build on insights from my research, and develop a practical toolkit for use is the development of employment services. Through these activities the fellowship aims to have a concrete impact on welfare policy and services, based on robust evidence, expertise, and street-level analysis.