Risk, Trust and Welfare. (Book Notes).Peter Taylor People called Peter Taylor include:
New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : St. Martin's St. Martin's or St. Martins may refer to:
The continued trend towards the privatization privatization: see nationalization. privatization Transfer of government services or assets to the private sector. State-owned assets may be sold to private owners, or statutory restrictions on competition between privately and publicly owned of welfare services in Britain assumes that individuals receiving social benefits act in a self-interested rational manner, carefully weighing the costs and benefits of their actions. This view is heavily influenced by rational choice theory Rational choice theory, also known as rational action theory, is a framework for understanding and often formally modeling social and economic behavior. It is the dominant theoretical paradigm in microeconomics. . However, while popular, it fails to consider how the wider social context affects decision making. Taylor-Gooby and the other contributors to this book challenge this view by assessing how individuals respond to changes in the perceived risks and uncertainties they face when interacting with the social welfare system. The concept of risk is used in this book to refer to economic vulnerability. Factors contributing to risk include aging, family disruption, labor market labor market A place where labor is exchanged for wages; an LM is defined by geography, education and technical expertise, occupation, licensure or certification requirements, and job experience changes induced by technological innovation and welfare retrenchment re·trench·ment n. The cutting away of superfluous tissue. . Although the overall level of risk has deceased as affluence has increased, people today are more aware of risk than before. The declining role of traditional mechanisms that protect individuals from risk exacerbates the perception of risk among people in the middle class. The social context in which people function is, therefore, critical in defining their perception of risk and in influencing the way they use the social services social services Noun, pl welfare services provided by local authorities or a state agency for people with particular social needs social services npl → servicios mpl sociales . In addition to the issue of risk, the role of trust in human relations is also relevant to the role of rational choice theory in explaining welfare behavior. Trust in professional experts and those in authority is being undermined as more people acquire knowledge through formal educational and access to information. As trust in experts and those with authority declines, the providers of social services can no longer assume that their role will be unquestioned. Rational choice does not incorporate this changing situation and the growing complexity of human relationships. These issues are examined in this interesting book which is divided into two parts. Part I begins with a critique of rational choice theory showing the limitations of the theory in explaining welfare behavior and in understanding the role of motivating factors such as altruism and moral commitment in social welfare. It reveals the simplistic sim·plism n. The tendency to oversimplify an issue or a problem by ignoring complexities or complications. [French simplisme, from simple, simple, from Old French; see simple nature of rational choice and exposes its weaknesses. The second part of the book contains case studies which substantiate the arguments in Part I. These studies show that individual responses to risk do not comply with the rational choice model and that its account of how people use the welfare system to cope with risk does not adequately explain their actions. The important book challenges the underlying assumptions of rational choice theory. The continued trend towards privatization will not solve the problems of risk and trust which are so central to social life today. In addition, it will further weaken the citizenship obligations on which social welfare has historically been based. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion