IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v55y2023i4p871-889.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Punish, protect or redirect? Synthesising workfare with ‘spatially Keynesian’ labour market policies in times of job loss

Author

Listed:
  • Tom Barnes

Abstract

The relationship between job loss and workfare has been well documented. Workers who lose jobs, including long-term careers in previously secure employment, enter systems of workfare that churn them through precarious jobs in return for meagre income support. But the relationship between workfare and alternative systems of labour market assistance rolled out before job loss is less understood. To shed new light on this issue, this article critically analyses an attempt to synthesise two labour market policies implemented in response to the closure of Australia's automotive manufacturing industry in 2017. The first policy was an altruistic, spatially Keynesian response to deindustrialisation; the second policy was based on Australia's notoriously punitive system of workfare. The article asks: how was it possible to synthesise systems framed in mutually incompatible terms? This question can be addressed, it argues, by deploying an Agency-Structure-Institutions-Discourse (ASID) approach to understand how and why these labour market policies were hybridised. The article's results are instructive in a ‘post-pandemic’ environment in which opportunities to rollout alternatives to workfare will be forced to contend with resurgent workfare states.

Suggested Citation

  • Tom Barnes, 2023. "Punish, protect or redirect? Synthesising workfare with ‘spatially Keynesian’ labour market policies in times of job loss," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(4), pages 871-889, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:55:y:2023:i:4:p:871-889
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X221140891
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X221140891
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X221140891?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brenner, Neil, 2004. "New State Spaces: Urban Governance and the Rescaling of Statehood," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199270064.
    2. Sally Weller, 2021. "Places that matter: Australia’s crisis intervention framework and voter response," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 14(3), pages 529-544.
    3. Michelle Peterie & Gaby Ramia & Greg Marston & Roger Patulny, 2019. "Emotional Compliance and Emotion as Resistance: Shame and Anger among the Long-Term Unemployed," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(5), pages 794-811, October.
    4. Elaine Swan, 2010. "Worked Up Selves," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Worked Up Selves, chapter 8, pages 206-224, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Elaine Swan, 2010. "Worked Up Selves," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-24676-8, December.
    6. Davidson, P., 2011. "Did 'Work First' Work? The Role of Employment Assistance Programs in Reducing Long-term Unemployment in Australia (1990-2008)," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 37(1), pages 51-96.
    7. Jacob Irving & Andrew Beer & Sally Weller & Tom Barnes, 2022. "Plant closures in Australia’s automotive industry: continuity and change," Regional Studies, Regional Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 5-22, December.
    8. Frank Moulaert & Bob Jessop & Abid Mehmood, 2016. "Agency, structure, institutions, discourse (ASID) in urban and regional development," International Journal of Urban Sciences, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 167-187, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jason C. Mueller, 2019. "What can sociologists of globalization and development learn from Nicos Poulantzas?," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 19(4), pages 284-303, October.
    2. Maria Gretzky & Julia Lerner, 2021. "Students of Academic Capitalism: Emotional Dimensions in the Commercialization of Higher Education," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 26(1), pages 205-221, March.
    3. Geneviève Zembri-Mary & Virginie Engrand-Linder, 2023. "Urban planning law in the face of the Olympic challenge: Between innovation and criticism of exceptional urban regeneration," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 38(4), pages 369-388, June.
    4. Navé Wald & Douglas P. Hill, 2016. "‘Rescaling’ alternative food systems: from food security to food sovereignty," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(1), pages 203-213, March.
    5. Kevin Fox Gotham, 2014. "Racialization and Rescaling: Post-Katrina Rebuilding and the Louisiana Road Home Program," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 773-790, May.
    6. Andrew Clarke & Lynda Cheshire, 2018. "The post-political state? The role of administrative reform in managing tensions between urban growth and liveability in Brisbane, Australia," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(16), pages 3545-3562, December.
    7. Juliana Hurtado Rassi, 2020. "Gestión conjunta de ecosistemas transfronterizos: la importancia del trabajo articulado entre los Estados para la conservación de los recursos naturales. Análisis del caso particular de la “Reserva de," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, number 1241, October.
    8. Natalie Papanastasiou, 2017. "The practice of scalecraft: Scale, policy and the politics of the market in England’s academy schools," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(5), pages 1060-1079, May.
    9. Fricke, Carola, 2014. "Grenzüberschreitende Governance in der Raumplanung: Organisations- und Kooperationsformen in Basel und Lille," Arbeitsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Grotheer, Swantje & Schwöbel, Arne & Stepper, Martina (ed.), Nimm's sportlich - Planung als Hindernislauf, volume 10, pages 62-78, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    10. Cavicchia, Rebecca, 2023. "Housing accessibility in densifying cities: Entangled housing and land use policy limitations and insights from Oslo," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    11. Matthias Bernt, 2009. "Partnerships for Demolition: The Governance of Urban Renewal in East Germany's Shrinking Cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 754-769, September.
    12. Bayirbag Mustafa K., 2011. "Pro-Business Local Governance and (Local) Business Associations: The Case of Gaziantep," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(4), pages 1-39, December.
    13. Carol Upadhya, 2017. "Amaravati and the New Andhra," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 12(2), pages 177-202, August.
    14. Malmberg Anders & Malmberg Bo & Maskell Peter, 2023. "Population age structure – An underlying driver of national, regional and urban economic development," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 67(4), pages 217-233, December.
    15. Yun Zhong & Xiaobo Su, 2019. "Spatial selectivity and intercity cooperation between Guangdong and Hong Kong," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(14), pages 3011-3029, November.
    16. Stephen M McCauley & James T Murphy, 2013. "Smart Growth and the Scalar Politics of Land Management in the Greater Boston Region, Usa," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(12), pages 2852-2867, December.
    17. Renaud Payre, 2010. "The Importance of Being Connected. City Networks and Urban Government: Lyon and Eurocities (1990–2005)," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 260-280, June.
    18. Jacob Salder, 2013. "Redeveloping local economic strategy for the post-regionalist era: A contextual benchmarking approach," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 28(7-8), pages 752-769, November.
    19. David Clelland, 2020. "Beyond the city region? Uneven governance and the evolution of regional economic development in Scotland," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 35(1), pages 7-26, February.
    20. Owain Smolović Jones & Sanela Smolović Jones & Scott Taylor & Emily Yarrow, 2021. "‘I Wanted More Women in, but . . .’: Oblique Resistance to Gender Equality Initiatives," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(4), pages 640-656, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:55:y:2023:i:4:p:871-889. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.