Let’s Rephrase the Welfare Debate

by  Elena Genova, PhD candidate at the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham The session on Welfare Reform at the 100 Days conference of Cameron’s Majority Government, organised by the International Centre for Public and Social Policy at the School of Sociology was far from a quiet, timid one. Indeed, the …

Thoughts on the “Welfare Reform” session that should be renamed “changes to social security”

by Jenni Cauvain and Bruce Stafford   This session, chaired by Simon Roberts, considered two policy areas that are central to the Conservative Party’s blue collar political messaging. Emphasis in the Conservative’s narrative on welfare and housing reforms has been about “making work pay” and “being on the side of working people”, which suggests that …

#100DAYSCONF AT A GLANCE

By Rupal Patel & Elena Genova The International Centre for Public and Social Policy organised a conference on the 4th of September at the University of Nottingham entitled ‘What’s New About ‘Blue-Collar Conservatism’? The First 100 Days of Cameron’s Majority Conservative Government’. Dr Simon Roberts’ welcome stressed the fact that ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s …

What is the impact of austerity on individual attitudes and ‘lived experience’?

By Ruth Read On 16 January 2015 the Social Policy Association ran a workshop at the University of Leeds entitled “Austerity, Welfare and Citizenship”.  The workshop highlighted some complex, troublesome and neglected aspects of the austerity story. Ruth Patrick described findings from her qualitative research tracking 15 claimants from three groups (young, lone parents, disabled …