Street-Level Advocates: Developmental Service Workers Confront Austerity in Ontario

Courtney, Joseph W; Hickey, Robert

doi:10.1353/llt.2016.0036

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…A progressive model may have been more prevalent at one time in some parts of the NPSS. However, the shift to a more private market, high-conflict model has been accelerated by NPM models that failed to see cost savings from collective, participatory processes and hence, reduced or removed them (Courtney and Hickey, 2016; McDonald, 2006). Overall, growing exposure to market relations means that nonprofits are increasingly integrated into the fabric and structure of capitalism (Cunningham and James, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the ‘developed’ world, the nonprofit or voluntary sector claims to be, and to some extent has been, a sector with a less formalized and non-antagonistic industrial relations culture which some claim makes it more progressive (Courtney and Hickey, 2016; Hemmings, 2011). Progressive is defined as promoting or favouring progress toward better conditions and relations and/or new policies, ideas, or methods (Capulong, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘How could management let this happen?’ Gender, unpaid work and industrial relations in the nonprofit social services sector

Cunningham

Baines

2017

Economic and Industrial Democracy

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In order to compete in increasingly tight quasi-markets generated by government cutbacks and contracting-out, management in nonprofit agencies have argued that wages and benefits must be reduced or jobs and services will be cut. These arguments have motivated some of the female-majority workers to join and/or organize unions and undertake strike action. Focusing on two case studies exploring restructuring in the highly gendered nonprofit social services in two liberal welfare states (Scotland and Canada), this article explores shifts in industrial relations at the agency level, as well as workforce resistance and union activism. Through the analysis of gendered unpaid work and gendered forms of social and union solidarity, this article extends feminist political economy and mobilization theory. It also suggests convergences at several layers of practice and policy, including private and nonprofit industrial relations cultures, managerialism and the underfunding of contracted-out government services.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘How could management let this happen?’ Gender, unpaid work and industrial relations in the nonprofit social services sector

Cunningham

Baines

2017

Economic and Industrial Democracy

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“…In many Western nations, there has been pressure for austerity measures to be considered by all levels of governmentparticularly following the recession of the mid-2000s. For local governments in Ontario and Canada, this includes reduction of public services (of which local economic development is a part) and tighter constraints on taxation and spending (Arellano & Bai, 2017;Courtney & Hickey, 2016). Local governments in Ontario are obligated to be transparent to the public about their debt and spending (Brusca & Montesinos, 2016).…”

Section: Theoretical Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Manufacturing change and policy response in the contemporary economic landscape: how cities in Ontario, Canada, understand and plan for manufacturing

Cleave

Vecchio

Spilsbury

et al. 2019

Regional Studies, Regional Science

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Despite its nearly half-century decline in Western countries, manufacturing remains a vital part of local and regional economies. This importance is reflected in the economic development policies of cities, which are struggling to understand the current state of manufacturing and what they should do to either reinforce or replace it. Within the scholarship and practice, however, there is limited understanding of the policies that are adopted and whether they have potential to have a meaningful impact for the cities that adopt them. To address this gap, this research considers the way that manufacturing is contextualized and responded to within the local economic development planning documents of 47 (of 51) cities in Ontario, Canada. Through a comprehensive content analysis, it examines whether there are variations in the way cities approach manufacturing. Based on chi-square analysis, the findings show that there is considerable homogeneity in the way that cities of all sizes are approaching manufacturing, suggesting they are not adequately considering the local context in their policy, and rather focus on more general and previously adopted approaches. However, there is an emerging spatiality to the policy that was identified, which presents cities with a pathway forward to address manufacturing within their local economic development.

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“…Brook (2013) describes this as a contest between management's objectified meanings and employees collectively forged subjective meanings in which terms such as "supportive," "non-disciplinary," and "organizational demands" become "sites of dispute over their meaning, purpose and implication" (Brook, 2013, 44). While managers and workers in the NPSS have historically been considered to be "on the same side" with the government as a type of "ghost employer" (Courtney and Hickey, 2016), the increasing managerialist shift from which such attendance management programs stem creates contestations and increases tensions between management and workers. Policies such as the attendance support program are perfectly aligned with managerialist practices that seek to reduce costs, such as costs associated with employees' use of collectively bargained sick leave.…”

Section: Job Strain Under Npmmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the context of neoliberalization and intensifying austerity measures, some scholars suggest that emphasizing the caregiving relationship over the managerialist goals of the organization is a form of resistance insofar as it rejects the notion that social service agencies should be run like corporations, deprioritizes efficiency in favour of quality of care and challenges the individualism inherent in neoliberalism (Courtney & Hickey, 2016;Woolford & Curran, 2012). By rejecting dominant expectations of how the field should operate and what constitutes success, participants in this study were able to make space for their own priorities of building supportive, trusting relationships, and enacting social justice values.…”

Section: Emotional Misbehaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

'It doesn’t always do justice to people’: Neoliberalism’s Reorganization of Social Service Delivery in Ontario

Hug¹

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Guided by institutional ethnography and labour process theory, this project explores the ways in which the discourses and practices of neoliberal austerity organize the work experiences of frontline social service providers and workers' various forms of resistance to this restructuring. Managerialist practices of accreditation and evidencebased practice appear to reorient service provision away from relational, social justice oriented work and community building, redistributing workers' time and energy to administrative practices involved in assessments, evaluations, and performance measurements. These ongoing changes take a toll on worker mental wellbeing and present challenges to the sustainability of social service provision by increasing workloads and limiting workers' access to support. While these changes in work processes present some challenges in workers' relationships with management and one another, they also open up new spaces to demonstrate solidarity and to work together to resist the neoliberalization of the sector.iii Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible with out the support of my friends and supervisors who often believed in me more than I believed in myself.In particular, I would like to thank James Bray for spending countless hours helping me edit and polish my writing, for ensuring that I always had something nutritious to eat, and for providing an incredible amount of emotional support, without which I would not have been able to finish.I also need to thank so many of my friends who graciously endured hours of discussion about this project and never failed to demonstrate their unending support for me. Thank you to my roommate, Ames Mannseichner, for making me delicious meals, for always being on-hand with reassuring words, and for tolerating the stacks of books and papers left lying around the house for months as I focused on my writing. Thank you to Emily Hopwood for providing me with a much-needed distraction from my writing and for bringing me such thoughtful care packages. Thank you to Kammy Willbond for helping me find the motivation and energy to write during our study sessions together when I didn't have enough on my own. Thank you to Evan Read Armstrong, the funniest person in the world, for always making me laugh and for displaying a reassuring, though I maintain unwarranted, degree of confidence in my abilities when I needed it most. I am very privileged to have such great people in my life.Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr. Dan Irving and Dr. Susan Braedley, for all the time they contributed to this project, for providing me with many rounds of feedback and for balancing that feedback with much-needed reassurance and emotional support. This project would never have been possible without their intellectual and emotional support.iv

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Street-Level Advocates: Developmental Service Workers Confront Austerity in Ontario

Cited by 8 publications

References 35 publications

‘How could management let this happen?’ Gender, unpaid work and industrial relations in the nonprofit social services sector

‘How could management let this happen?’ Gender, unpaid work and industrial relations in the nonprofit social services sector

Manufacturing change and policy response in the contemporary economic landscape: how cities in Ontario, Canada, understand and plan for manufacturing

'It doesn’t always do justice to people’: Neoliberalism’s Reorganization of Social Service Delivery in Ontario

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