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Social Work In The Workfare Regime: A Comparison Of The U.S. And Australia, Catherine Mcdonald, Michael Reisch

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Australia and the U.S. are both liberal welfare states. During the past quarter century, they have begun the transition from a welfare to a workfare state, albeit at different rates and through different paths. Social work developed in each country in ways congruent with the local liberal welfare state, and as such, has been destabilized by the transition to the workfare regime. Drawing on neo-institutional theory and extant empirical research in other professionalized fields, the paper suggests that this transition can be understood as an aspect of institutional change. By comparing the developments in two similar, yet difterent nations, this …