Desperately seeking fusion
On 'Joined-Up Thinking', 'Holistic Practice' and the New Economy of Welfare Professional Power
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5609415 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chris Allen (0000-0002-1296-8989) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 287-306 |
| Publication date | 2003-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0007131032000080249 |
| PMID | 12945871 |
| OpenAlex | W2083619712 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 23 |
| References cited | 13 |
This paper argues that social welfare research on joined-up thinking is underpinned bytwo theses. The 'systemic move' thesis suggests that joined-up thinking is needed to fill gaps in welfare service provision arising from a lack of inter-organizational coordination. The 'epistemological move' thesis advises that joined-up thinking is needed to overcome deficiencies in the institutional division and distribution of welfare knowledge. Both theses macro-systematize blame for previous social welfare failures, and both are teleological because they present joined-up thinking as a progressive solution that results in a more effective (and thus less fallible) welfare system. In this paper, I argue that joined-up thinking can also create a new economy of welfare professional power. First, I show how some versions of 'joined-up' thinking manifest themselves in holistic practices that can 'see everything', 'know everything' and 'do anything', and thus a 'holistic power' to discipline and control every aspect of welfare recipients lives. Since holistic power is seen as infallible, its failure to produce 'active bodies' necessitates the creation of secondary 'joined-up powers' that individualize blame and exclude those to blame from welfare resources. These 'secondarypowers' match the social disciplines enforced by one welfare agency (e.g.the responsibility to work enforced by the employment service) with legal rights under another agency (e.g.the right to housing from social landlords), so that breach of the former leads to exclusion from the latter. I conclude that this power strategy is primitive and punitive because it simply excludes welfare recipients. Exclusion is also uneconomic because it pushes welfare recipients into the shade of welfare institutional power
Agency (philosophy · Blame · Law and economics · Political science · Power (physics · Public relations · Punitive damages · Social science · Social Welfare · Sociology · Welfare · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Psychology · Social Policy and Reform Studies · Social Psychology · Social Work
How to be Modern
Complexities in the Exchange of Private Information in Inter-Organisational Networks
Overcoming non-take-up of rights
Travail social dans les prisons bruxelloises
Justitieel welzijnswerk in de Brusselse gevangenissen
Welfare work in the Brussels prisons
Dealing with the wicked issue of child poverty
On the Epistemology of Welfare Professional Practice Author' Response
Proportionate universalism in child and family social work
Managing the flow of private information on children and parents in poverty situations
Reconfiguring work and welfare in the UK's ‘New Economy’
Someone to Watch over Me’
Social work’s ‘electronic turn’
The Political Role of Social Work
Networks for Welfare Provision
Reconstructing the Foundations of Joined-Up Working
Uncovering the Double-Edged Sword of Inter-Organisational Networks of Welfare Services
Domestic Abuse, Safeguarding Children and Public Health
How Has the Professional Capabilities Framework Changed Social Work Education and Practice in England
The Dilemmas of Contemporary Social Work
The Limits of Joined‐up Government
Policy as Narrative
On the Logic of 'New' Welfare Practice
Marginal natives
The Homelessness Problem
The Birth of the Clinic
Frameworks of Power
The Order of Things
On the Social Consequences (and Social Conscience) of 'the Foyer Industry
Housing policy, housing management and tenant power in the ‘risk society’
Collaboration between Health and Local Authorities
Two arguments for ‘covert methods’ in social research
Risk society
Looking for the Good Soldier, Švejk
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2003 - 2021 (19) |
| Highly cited | No |