Disciplinary Social Policy and the Failing Promise of the New Middle Classes: The Troubled Families Programme

Nunn, Alex and Tepe-Belfrage, Daniela ORCID: 0000-0001-6469-0555 (2017) Disciplinary Social Policy and the Failing Promise of the New Middle Classes: The Troubled Families Programme. SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIETY, 16 (1). pp. 119-129.

Text
SP&S2 edits finalv4.docx - Author Accepted Manuscript
Download (159kB)

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1474746416000452

Abstract

<jats:p>This article looks at the promise of the ‘New Middle Class’ (NMC) inherent in the neoliberal ideological ideal of individualising societal responsibility for well-being and success. The article points to how this promise enables a discourse and practice of welfare reform and a disciplining of life styles particularly targeting the very poor in society. Women and some ethnic minorities are particularly prone to poverty and then therefore also discipline. The article then provides a case study of the Troubled Families Programme (TFP) and shows how the programme and the way it is constructed and managed partly undermines the provision of the material needs to alleviate people from poverty and re-produces discourses of poor lifestyle and parenting choices as sources of poverty, thereby undermining the ‘middle-class’ promise.</jats:p>

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Troubled families, (new) middle class, disciplining social policy, neoliberalism
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	12 Oct 2016 13:41
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 07:29
DOI:	10.1017/S1474746416000452
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3003741