Case management in the workfare state
Catherine McDonald and Greg Marston
University of Queensland
Contact Email:   C.McDonaldsocial.uq.edu.au

Case management has become a key technology of government of unemployed people in workfare states such as the United States and Australia. In this paper we argue that case management represents a radical localisation of governance, wherein the relationship between unemployed people and the state is articulated primarily through the relationship between the case manager and her client. The Job Network and its various processes represent a primary example of ‘government at a distance’. Employing a governmental analytical framework, this paper reports on a study undertaken in Australia’s Job Network in 2002. Specifically, we report on how the case management relationship is represented and experienced in interviews with case managers and long term unemployed people receiving intensive assistance in a small sample of non-profit and for-profit Job Network agencies in Melbourne and Brisbane. The research reveals the micro processes wherein case managers offer particular identities to IA recipients, and how these people respond. We argue that engaging in policy research at this level of analysis acts as a necessary micro-corrective to macro welfare state comparisons illuminating how policies lead to particular transformations in social relations and welfare identities.

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