1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910450619803321

Autore

Haney Lynne A (Lynne Allison), <1967->

Titolo

Inventing the needy [[electronic resource] ] : gender and the politics of welfare in Hungary / / Lynne Haney

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2002

ISBN

9786612762581

0-520-93610-8

1-282-76258-3

1-59734-685-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (353 p.)

Disciplina

362.5/09493

Soggetti

Public welfare - Hungary - History

Women - Hungary - Social conditions

Electronic books.

Hungary Social conditions 1945-1989

Hungary Social conditions 1989-

Hungary Social policy

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Conceptualizing the Welfare State -- Part I. The Welfare Society, 1948-1968 -- Part II. The Maternalist Welfare State, 1968-1985 -- Part III. The Liberal Welfare State, 1985-1996 -- Conclusion: Welfare Lessons from East to West -- Methodological Appendix: Historical Excavation in an Era of Censorship -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Inventing the Needy offers a powerful, innovative analysis of welfare policies and practices in Hungary from 1948 to the last decade of the twentieth century. Using a compelling mix of archival, interview, and ethnographic data, Lynne Haney shows that three distinct welfare regimes succeeded one another during that period and that they were based on divergent conceptions of need. The welfare society of 1948-1968 targeted social institutions, the maternalist welfare state of 1968-



1985 targeted social groups, and the liberal welfare state of 1985-1996 targeted impoverished individuals. Because they reflected contrasting conceptions of gender and of state-recognized identities, these three regimes resulted in dramatically different lived experiences of welfare. Haney's approach bridges the gaps in scholarship that frequently separate past and present, ideology and reality, and state policies and local practices. A wealth of case histories gleaned from the archives of welfare institutions brings to life the interactions between caseworkers and clients and the ways they changed over time. In one of her most provocative findings, Haney argues that female clients' ability to use the state to protect themselves in everyday life diminished over the fifty-year period. As the welfare system moved away from linking entitlement to clients' social contributions and toward their material deprivation, the welfare system, and those associated with it, became increasingly stigmatized and pathologized. With its focus on shifting inventions of the needy, this broad historical ethnography brings new insights to the study of welfare state theory and politics.