Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-03T16:27:16.981Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

twelve - Beyond New Labour: work and resistance in the ‘new’ welfare state

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2022

Alex Law
Affiliation:
University of Abertay Dundee
Get access

Summary

Modernising leftists can, or should, have a clear idea of the kind of society they are seeking to create. It is one whose economy is competitive in the global marketplace, but which remains cohesive, inclusive and egalitarian. Bringing into being such a society means running with the tide of the great social changes of our era – not just the emergence of the knowledge economy, but the impact of globalisation and of rising individualism. (Giddens, 2003, p 38)

Many would argue that the hegemony of neoliberalism is demonstrated precisely by the fact that its policies survived the electoral defeat of the parties that inaugurated it. (Callinicos, 2001, p 7)

Other chapters in this volume have examined specific dimensions of restructured welfare work. Here we return to reflect on larger questions around the managerialist regimes of ‘strenuous welfarism’. Our conception of strenuous welfarism attempts to capture the new ascetic work regime that often operates through ‘control at a distance’ to intensify individual effort and raise ‘productivity’ overall (see Chapter Two). In this chapter, we reconsider the intellectual underpinnings and genesis of strenuous welfarism in Third Way thinking and New Labour ‘modernisation’ (see Chapters One and Two). We then use this opportunity to reflect on the internal modulation of strenuous welfarism as it emerged in the workplace case studies in this book. In response to more flexibly intensive work regimes, workers ‘exit’, leaving their employer or even the sector altogether; or they stay ‘loyal’ to the organisation and the profession through the internalisation of the service ethos and managerial norms; or, finally, they engage in overt and covert forms of resistance, in the process confronting the tensions symptomatic of social neoliberalism. We then speculate about new tendencies and dynamics emerging from worker discontent with strenuous welfarism. A space is opening up for the sectional struggles of workers to reach out to other constituencies such as user groups, grassroots campaigns, new social movements and other political allies that wish to support and expand public services. These new social solidarities are also indicators of the way that class is being re-composed, not as a passive process but through dynamic altercations with New Labour's project for strenuous welfarism and the decomposition of collectivities.

Type
Chapter
Information
New Labour/Hard Labour?
Restructuring and Resistance inside the Welfare Industry
, pp. 263 - 286
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×