Imagining Social
Policy Conference
October 13-15, 2005
Vancouver, B.C.
Enhancing Social Policy
in Canada:
The Gore-tex Approach
Rhonda S. Breitkreuz, Ph.D.,
Deanna L. Williamson, Ph.D.,
Department of Human Ecology,
University of Alberta
Acknowledgement: Support for this research was provided by the
Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research and the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Purpose

Propose an “ideal” public policy
approach which bridges aspects of
contemporary welfare state orientations
(I.e., the social investment state and the
social protection state)
Policy Context

Social protection  social investment
(Jenson, 1997)
• Social Protection State
– Safety net
• Social Investment State
– Trampoline (Saint-Martin, 2000)
– Welfare-to-work
Situating the Discussion

The Self-Sufficiency Trap
– the day-to-day experiences of welfare-to-work
programs on low-income mothers with young
children
– A citizenship framework

Findings
– The promise
– The reality
– Surprise: Participants like welfare-to-work
Welfare State: Agency/structure
waltz

“When does need entitle people to
make a claim against the collective”?
(Robertson, 1998, p. 1426)
– Is income redistribution a moral
responsibility or morally problematic for
society?
The problem of need (Robertson, 1998)

Dominated by two
discourses with
individualistic focus:
– Therapeutic
language
– “Rights talk”

New approach
which recognizes
mutuality or
relationships
– Moral economy of
interdependence
Interdependence

“our very individuality exists only as a
result of our embeddedness in a
network of relationships both private
and public. None of us is totally
independent of our context – social
political and economic; rather, we are
located and live within complex webs of
mutual dependence or interdependence
(Robertson, 1997, p. 436)
Rethinking the
Agency/Structure Waltz

Weather analogy
– A good winter, like social structures:
opportunity and constraints
– Individual overcomes constraints to
engage in opportunities, with considerable
resources
– Ability to engage one’s agency depends
upon external resources
The Gore-tex Approach
Social Protection
•Protection
Social Investment
•Opportunity
Moral Economy
of
Interdependence
Layered
Approach
Layer One: Citizen’s Basic Income
(McKay, 2001)

Universal logic (Jenson, 2004)
– Progressive universalism
• “Some for all but more for the poorest”
(Pawlick & Stroick 2004)
– Less vulnerable to changing political tides

CBI especially important for women
– Lower earnings
– Caring responsibilities
– Single-mother households
Layer Two: Social Investment
Labour & employment strategies
 Education
 Childcare policy
 Early childhood development policy

Discussion
Social protection is necessary, but not
sufficient
 Although the Citizens’ Basic Income is
not a new idea, it merits revisiting to
enhance the current ‘investment’ policy
orientation which, on its own, excludes
many marginalized women
