Workfare Oz-Style: Welfare Reform and Social Work in Australia

Traditional approaches to the promotion of welfare have disappeared in Australia, replaced by a new institutional order represented by welfare-cum-workfare. This has impacted on social workboth as a collective entity and as a set of practices. This paper maps the shift to workfare in Australia and examines its impacts on and implications for social work. We briefly discuss the Australian model of social protection, illustrating our own brand of "exceptionalism," and lay out what we have termed "Workfare Oz-style." Drawing upon neo-institutional theory, we review and analyze two key contexts where "Workfare Oz-style" is operationalized-the Job Network and Centrelink. Some tentative conclusions are given and the dimensions of a research agenda, which will put any emerging propositions to empirical test, are proposed. (C) 2006 The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.