Doctoral Dissertation Research: Geographies of Welfare Reform

这项研究将探索地理位置如何影响那些离开福利名单的人的机会、资源和生计，以及贫困和福利收据如何塑造公民身份条款和福利接受者的政治行动。通过这项研究，将考察就业和公民身份之间的关系。工作类型(看门人和医生)极大地改变了人们获得关键社会产品的途径，并影响了个人对社会的包容或排斥情绪。过去30年的经济结构调整改变了公民的条件以及公民与国家之间的责任纽带。例如，自20世纪80年代以来，有关福利的言论更多地侧重于公民的责任，而不是公民的权利。这些变化对福利受助人具有重要影响，他们现在经常被要求找到有偿工作才能获得福利。随着安全网的缩小和当前的经济衰退，理解对贫困家庭的临时援助(TANF)在构建公民身份条款方面的作用在此时此刻尤为重要。博士生丽贝卡·伯内特在华盛顿大学地理系维多利亚·劳森博士的指导下，将采用混合方法，利用定量数据和深入的定性访谈来绘制参与和退出TANF的空间模式，发现人们为什么离开福利，他们如何获得收入、资源和服务，以及接受TANF如何影响公民身份和公民参与的条款。通过对华盛顿州的金县和密苏里州的杰克逊县的比较分析，该项目将绘制联邦、州和县三级关于TANF接受者的数据，以阐明该计划中的进出模式以及这些模式中的任何空间变异性。这项工作将使人们更好地了解当前的经济衰退和地理环境在那些离开福利的人的经历中所起的作用。这项工作的更广泛的影响将增加学者、政策制定者和社区活动家之间关于贫困和福利的原因和潜在解决方案的对话。此外，对贫困和福利的地方经验分析将增加我们对TANF出入境比率的理解，这有助于制定政策。该项目还将增进我们对当前经济衰退对不同地理区域生活贫困的人的影响的了解，并了解那些最容易受到经济变化影响的人的具体经历。对这些数据进行分析后绘制的地图和地图将显示贫困和临时住房基金收入与当地的社会和经济特征有关的变化。研究成果将在相关会议上传播，并通过同行评议期刊上发表的学术文章进行传播。为了对所研究的社区产生影响，研究结果将通过在就业培训计划上的陈述来传播，这些计划由研究中使用的各种非营利组织和倡导团体协调。

This research will explore the ways in which geography influences the opportunities, resources, and livelihoods of those leaving the welfare rolls, as well as explore how poverty and welfare receipt shape the terms of citizenship and the political action of welfare recipients. Through this study, the relationship between employment and citizenship will be examined. Job type (janitor vs. doctor) greatly alters access to key social goods and influences individuals' feelings of inclusion or exclusion in society. The economic restructuring of the past 30 years has changed the conditions of citizenship and the bonds of responsibility between citizen and the state. For example, since the 1980s, rhetoric on welfare has focused more on the responsibilities of citizenship than the rights of citizens. These changes have important implications for welfare recipients who are now often required to find paid employment in order to receive benefits. With a diminishing safety net and a current recession, understanding the role of Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) in constructing the terms of citizenship is especially relevant in this moment. Doctoral student Rebecca Burnett, under the supervision of Dr. Victoria Lawson in the Department of Geography at the University of Washington, will employ a mixed method approach utilizing both quantitative data and in-depth qualitative interviews to map the spatial patterns of TANF participation and exit, to discover why people leave welfare and how do they access income, resources and services, and how receiving TANF influences the terms of citizenship and citizen participation. Through a comparative analysis of King County in Washington state and Jackson County in Missouri, this project will map federal, state and county level data on TANF recipients to illuminate patterns of entry and exit in the program and any spatial variability in those patterns. This work will lead to a better understanding of the role that the current recession and geography play in the experiences of those leaving welfare.The broader impacts of this work will increase dialogue between academics, policy makers and community activists about the reasons and potential solutions to poverty and welfare. In addition, the place-based empirical analysis of poverty and welfare will add to our understanding of TANF entry and exit rates that can help shape policy. This project will also add to our understanding of the ways in which the present economic recession affects those living in poverty in difference geographic regions, and to understand the specific experiences of those most vulnerable to economic changes. The maps and cartograms that will be produced from the analysis of this data will show variations in poverty and TANF receipt in relation to social and economic characteristics of place. Research results will be disseminated at relevant conferences and through publications of academic articles in peer-reviewed journals. In order to impact the communities studied, the research results will be disseminated through presentations at the job training programs that are coordinated by various non-profit organizations and advocacy groups utilized in the study.