TY - JOUR
T1 - From the Margins to the Center
T2 - A Bottom-Up Approach to Welfare State Scholarship
AU - Michener, Jamila
AU - Sorelle, Mallory
AU - Thurston, Chloe
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - In this article we reassess conceptions of the welfare state with an eye towards the limits of current scholarly approaches. In particular, we propose centering the study of the welfare state around those who occupy the margins of American society. We argue that concentrating on populations at the proverbial "bottom"of standard economic and political hierarchies productively reorients research on social policy and politics by bringing crucial but often overlooked facets of the welfare state into sharper view. Specifically, the bottom-up approach we offer here entreats political scientists to re-consider where they look in their efforts to delineate the welfare state, how to examine what they find, and what kinds of questions to ask in the process. Ultimately, studying the welfare state from the bottom up suggests a host of new directions for scholars seeking to understand its politics.
AB - In this article we reassess conceptions of the welfare state with an eye towards the limits of current scholarly approaches. In particular, we propose centering the study of the welfare state around those who occupy the margins of American society. We argue that concentrating on populations at the proverbial "bottom"of standard economic and political hierarchies productively reorients research on social policy and politics by bringing crucial but often overlooked facets of the welfare state into sharper view. Specifically, the bottom-up approach we offer here entreats political scientists to re-consider where they look in their efforts to delineate the welfare state, how to examine what they find, and what kinds of questions to ask in the process. Ultimately, studying the welfare state from the bottom up suggests a host of new directions for scholars seeking to understand its politics.
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U2 - 10.1017/S153759272000359X
DO - 10.1017/S153759272000359X
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096049200
JO - Perspectives on Politics
JF - Perspectives on Politics
SN - 1537-5927
ER -