The Neoliberal Baseline? A Community-Based Exploration of Beliefs about Poverty and Social Policy

ABSTRACT

Drawing on data from community-based research in the United States, this article addresses three key elements of poverty governance identified by scholars critical of neoliberal policy approaches: market-based logic, individualism, and punitive orientation. Comparing low-income residents of an economically challenged community with local middle-class professionals who work with children and families, the analysis documents that both groups endorse more egalitarian approaches, but middle-class professionals were notably more likely to combine that endorsement with a baseline of neoliberal elements. The implications of these beliefs are considered, in relation to the need for resisting the hegemony of neoliberal approaches to poverty policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Beliefs
• community-based research
• neoliberalism
• poverty
• social policy

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to my partner organization, the many local participants in our focus groups and surveys, and the Harward Center for Community Partnerships at Bates College for a small internal research grant that helped fund some aspects of the work. For their excellent research assistance and community engagement, I also thank current and former Bates College students, Tara Humphries, Michael Lee, and Sophie Moss-Slavin.

Notes

1. Also see Soss et al. (2011) who extend Wacquant’s (2009) analysis of the expanding carceral state and retreating welfare state as interconnected in the neoliberal political project.

2. Focus group notes sometimes include verbatim transcriptions of phrases, but more often summarize claims. For survey responses, exact wording from participants is consistently available.