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BJSW Advance Access published online on January 29, 2009
British Journal of Social Work, doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcn176
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved

‘If We Don't Get Back to Where We Were Before’: Working in the Restructured Non-Profit Social Services

Donna Baines

Donna Baines teaches labour studies and social work at McMaster University, Canada. Her research focuses on: restructuring in the social services; paid and unpaid care work; race, class and gender in everyday work; and anti-oppressive social work practice.

Correspondence to Donna Baines, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Labour Studies and Social Work, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4M4. E-mail: bainesd{at}mcmaster.ca


  Abstract

Drawing on data collected as part of a larger study of the experience of restructuring in the nonprofit (voluntary) social services in Canada and Australia, this article explores the responses to four overlapping interview questions regarding what drew nonprofit social service workers to the sector, what were the positive and negative aspects of working in the sector, and, if given the power, what is the one thing they would change. Responses to these questions highlight the way social service workers wish they could work, factors that impede this work, decrease worker autonomy and increase management control over their labour process. These new findings will be compared to findings from an earlier study of restructuring in the public and nonprofit Canadian social services, highlighting the way that changes in the labour process suppress or facilitate the empowerment of workers, including their capacity to dream of a better future.

Keywords: Nonprofit, labour process, restructuring, Canada/Australia comparison


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