Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
and attention to the minutiae of everyday life constructed welfare regimes, globalisation, memory, transition, policy
within, and itself constructive of, 'welfare' as a lived advice, new ethnography. welfare subjects
the basis for a new action research, and for policy agendas University of Sheffield. clo S Draganica 1, 10090 Zagreb,
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare 2002.
Published by Blackwell Publishing, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 IJF. UK and 350 Main Street, Malden MA 02148. USA
321
Stubbs
ber of local peace-building NGOs. Increasingly, I have becoming profound. This article seeks to address how
become involved in work on developing and this occurs and what can be done about it. Whilst there
evaluating programmes for intemational agencies, are no objective figures on the number of consultants
particularly DFID (the UK Govemment's Department involved in transnational advice and policy transfers,
for International Development)'. Finally, recognition an emerging literature does show how pervasive this
flashed across the colleague's face: 'Ah', he replied, mode of social practice has become (de la Porte &
'You're one of those consultants'. Deacon, 2002).
Trying to make sense of this encounter, and the fact The suggestion in this essay is that these policy
that, increasingly, 'consultants' are known as 'insul transfers, when understood through new kinds of
tants' by many on the receiving end of their advice in ethnographic and anthropological approaches, are
post-Yugoslav countries, was a key inspiration for this much more multi-dimensional, confusing and
essay. It is both a mea culpa and an attempt to describe contradictory than is sometimes portrayed in an
the possibility of different forms of transnational emerging literature on the imposition of 'external'
encounters, less insulting and more democratic than forces on local populations, powerless to resist. On the
the norm. The article seeks to argue that processes of other hand, the bland, technicist assumption of
globalisation, especially those involving transnational equality in some recent notions of these transfers as
policy transfers, are of immense importanee in under essentially partnerships between administrators, policy
standing new forms of the reproduction of relations makers and professionals from two or more different
and discourses of power, and of memory and countries, cannot and should not be accepted as more
forgetfulness, within particular social welfare regimes. than the ideology in use which it so obviously is. The
Transnational advice and policy transfers appear 'success' of such transfers, in part at least, always rests
particularly unsuited to the need to address the on the construction or invention of particular kinds of
complexities of the ways in which welfare subjects commonalities of memory, the construction of 'grand
interact with welfare regimes that seek to organise narratives' as it were, across time and space for
their lives, a theme which touches complex issues of administrators and professionals. Consultancy, insofar
culture, identity and resistance, at the interface of as it 'takes abstract models' and seeks to 'implant
local, national, regional and global social relations. them elsewhere', has a vested interest in a 'push
Whilst many of the other essays in this volume are towards abstraction' in the form of 'globally
concerned directly with the impacts of specific applicable knowledge' (Sampson, 2000). Yet this has
violences, collective or individual, this essay is more to be rendered meaningful in specific local settings
concerned with an overall notion of 'symbolic through a series of 'interpretative encounters',
violence' (Bourdieu, 1977: 191) which is unrecog revealed through critical ethnographic research.
niseable, social and increasingly constitutive of the The essay begins with a note on methodology,
emerging field of welfare regimes themselves. arguing that such a complex, reflexive, critical ethno
The essay seeks to pose some questions about how graphy must interrogate the research4:onsultancy
it is that a new cadre of 'consultants' or 'transnational nexus and erode the border between the two. It then
advisors', whose memories are of a particular place, confronts the minutiae of policy transfers in post
can and do have impacts on other places and spaces Yugoslav countries, and especially Bosnia
with which they are, more or less, unfamiliar. The Herzegovina (BiH), with which the author has been
Oxford English Dictionary defines a 'consultant' as involved, seeking to raise a set of issues of wider
someone who gives expert advice. 'Advice' is defined significance, in post-conflict, 'transition' and develop
as an opinion about what to do. The essential trappings ment contexts. It goes on to address a number of
of consultants was revealed in an email from a theoretical issues in terms of the relationship between
colleague prior to participation in a review for DFID: globalisation and welfare regimes in more general
'Please advise ... should I bring a suit and a laptop?'. terms. The essay ends by outlining elements of an
Given that transnational consultancies are increasingly emerging anthropological or ethnographic research
important discursive and practice forms, and are often agenda which offer possibilities for promoting new
based on assumptions of the possibility of achieving democratic welfare regimes and, returning to the
sufficient cross-cultural understanding within very specific context of social policy advice, sketches
narrow time frames (consultancies are measured in elements of what this might have meant in terms of
days, not years), the implications of these processes different processes, outcomes and overall under
for a denial of certain memories within welfare standings of 'reform'.
systems, especially of those at the receiving end,
welfare subjects in effect, whose identities are often
blurred and rendered technical by being defined as
'service users', 'beneficiaries' or 'clients', may be
322 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare 2002
GlobaIisation, memory and welfare regimes in transition
Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare 2002 323
Stubbs
more practical point is that, in stratified societies, and in particular in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the broad
consultancies can provide access to persons and data field of social welfare, particularly those which focus
which researchers cannot achieve, yet also involve on 'systemic reform', whilst complex and contra
traditional research techniques of interviews, obser dictory, reproduce certain kinds of power relations.
vations, structured workshop discussions and so on. In My own work in this field, including four different
any case, confidentiality clauses are often more assignments in BiH covering 140 days in total: for
flexible than they first appear, with commissioning CARE to organise a conference on Social Protection in
agencies willing to negotiate on specific scientific BiH (Stubbs & Gregson, 1998); for the Finnish
papers, and interested in the furtherance of scientific Government for two social welfare projects in 1998
knowledge. Issues of disguising sources and of seeking and 200 I; and for DFID planning a major programme
permission are no less important in more traditional on social welfare reform in 1999-2000, has a number
ethnographic research, of course. of threads to it which I seek to reassemble here in a
In the context of contemporary Bosnia-Herze coherent narrative.
govina, from which the particular material in this text Even in this form, it is clear that the realities of
is derived, I would argue that those who study social 'user perspectives' have rarely been addressed
policy are highly likely to be personally and profes discussions are held with Ministers and their officials;
sionally involved in the processes they study. The role with academic experts; with staff of major inter
of the freelance academic-researcher-consultant is national agencies; and sometimes, with professionals
increasingly important, frequently asked by a range of on the ground. Workshops are held for diverse
agencies to offer 'advice' in preparing and developing 'stakeholders', including newer and older non
projects and programmes; evaluating them; and governmental organisations. But rarely is there any
sometimes even implementing and running them. In meaningful interaction with welfare subjects, who are
a post-Fordist academic labour market, many scholars rendered silent by the consultancy mode. There are
do not have permanent, well-paid jobs and so are exceptions, of course, but these are often highly
increasingly drawn into consultancies, with inevitable problematic in the context of the highly mediated and
conflicts of interest. This suggests the need for new controlled environment of consultancy 'missions', a
forms of ethics, accountability and trust. Here, I am term which seems to force explicit comparison with
not suggesting that consultancies are themselves colonial 'missionary' activities.
ethnographies, but that an ethnography of consultancy Certainly, an early experience, as part of a UN
work can be derived from experiences as a consultant Mission on Developmental Social Issues in Mace
and interacting with other consultants. This is no more donia, of being driven in the Ministry of Foreign
than another breech of the myth of 'objective', Affairs' black BMW, through a Roma settlement on
'impartial' and 'neutral' research, requiring new forms the outskirts of Skopje, before holding discussions
of evidence which steer a path between dry with two families, unstructured and unprepared, in
objectivism, on the one hand, and decontextualised which only our embarrassment was obvious, whilst not
anecdotes on the other. The path to scientificity in typical, is an illustration of the problems. It could be
reflexive ethnography is not, however, equidistant argued, in fact, that the rise of 'consultancies'
between these two poles, since '(classic) anthropology alongside what Mark Duffield (2001) has termed the
and (classic) anecdotes from the field' have always 'new wars', in which the need to protect the developed
been 'loving partners' (Schwartz, 1998). In this text, a world from creeping 'dangerousness', is played out at
range of experiences and observations are utilised to the micro-level in terms of the protection afforded
develop both a reflexive self-criticism and a wider set consultants by the white jeep which meets them at the
of theoretical, research and policy issues. The test of airport. Indeed, it may not be insignificant that
the claims made here is, perhaps, less that of scientific Malinowski's white suit is now worn by EU monitors,
validity, than of whether the material is interesting and UN officials and the like, symbolising both 'purity'
persuasive of the need to generate new ways of and 'otherness'. It is useful to conceive of international
thinking about an emerging, increasingly important consultancy, transnational policy advice, and project
and little discussed, field of practice. and programme documents as a specific 'genre'
(Apthorpe, 1997: 43), with its own language and
power, including the power of silence. The anecdote
Welfare paradigms and policy advice in transition in
from Macedonia, for example, cannot be found in the
Bosnia-Herzegovina
'official report' (Deacon, Heikkila, Kraan, Stubbs &
In this section, based on the methodological Taipale, 1996).
parameters discussed above, I seek to utilise a range The author's work on programme development in
of ethnographic material to show how the everyday BiH, reconstituted as a coherent narrative, contains at
realities of consultancies in post-Yugoslav countries, least four areas of, hopefully defendable, connections
324 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare 2002
Globalisation, memory and welfare regimes in transition
with academic and political commitments. First, over a expense of community-based approaches, still paid
long period of time, the author was involved in a series much less attention to the memory of welfare by users,
of actions designed to have social policy and social however.
welfare taken seriously within an international aid Third, there was a clear attempt to promote an
agenda. The eritique was that, by systematically explicit value commitment in BiH and in other post
ignoring this issue in the context of wider recon Yugoslav countries to a 'welfare mix' or partnership
struction agendas, international assistance efforts had, approach, which sought to link Centres for Social
in fact, supported an implicit, residual, privatised Work with emerging forms of local non-governmental
social policy which, essentially, reduced social policy organisations and, indeed, to promote a new rela
to the level of 'humanitarian assistance', and in which tionship between public, private and non-profit
international NGOs, in a very ad hoc and incoherent activities in social welfare, beginning at the local
way, played the major role. As the author became level, but with lessons learnt permeating through the
involved in a number of programme development whole system. In many ways, this was explicitly
activities in BiB, this tension continued to reassert presented as an emerging European model of welfare,
itself, with considerable pressure to focus not on in opposition to both, the residual, privatised, neo
structures of welfare governance, but on aid to specific liberal approach, and also a traditional social demo
vulnerable groups. In a sense, this juxtaposition itself cratic statist approach. Again, in retrospect, this was a
reinforced the tendency to marginalise the voice of somewhat technicist solution which downplayed the
welfare subjects, because to focus on this at all whole issue of the social relations of welfare and the
appeared to give space to promote residual human lived experiences of welfare subjects. Indeed, in the
itarianism again. process of programme development, even when
Second, and crucially, in terms of the theme of this encounters with 'beneficiaries' were requested, these
text, the programmes which the author was involved in tended to be highly contrived occasions, no more than
planning sought to take seriously the pre-war welfare snapshots and used, if at all, to make judgements about
regime in BiB. Usually, international agencies paid the particular organisation concerned.
little attention to the historical context, or misread it as Fourth, the author was involved in an explicit move
'state socialist' or 'just like the rest of Eastern from 'projects', short-term and trend-based, to 'pro
Europe', the latter also being a misreading of 'Eastern grammes', longer term and more holistic. Much of the
Europe', of course. It was clear that external reform underpinning of this came from a critique of the
efforts were in danger of minimising the importance of overemphasis on professionalised psychosocial
deep-seated memories of welfare inscribed within the approaches to 'war trauma' which medicalised
cultural practices of long-standing institutions such as suffering and led to a strengthening of the psy
Centres for Social Work, the pillar of statutory social complex (lngleby, 1985) over social and community
work in former Yugoslavia, existing for more than 40 approaches. BiH and Croatia were sites of all manner
years, of which some 98 still existed in BiH in 1998, of professional-led, Western-based trauma inter
employing almost 400 qualified social workers (IBHI ventions, many of which formed alliances with local
1998a and 1998b). A telling quote from the then psychologists and other professions. Again, however,
Deputy Director of the World Bank Resident Mission this shift tended to evacuate the terrain of the lived
in BiH, Saumya Mitra, that 'the fact that in some experience of welfare recipients, and failed, just as the
senses we are beginning from the beginning here in a dominant approaches did, to excavate the lived
post-war period allows us to think radically and make realities and the multiple coping strategies developed
radical proposals' (in Stubbs & Gregson, 1998: 290), by people in their everyday lives.
shows the depth of this thinking in which war is itself Even as stated in this coherent fashion, the
an 'opportunity' for radical reform in which what went problems with systems-based thinking as an external
before is rendered, explicitly, useless. Hence there was reform lever, should be clear. Indeed, the denial of
a clear need for an approach which suggested that memories and the misunderstanding of place are all
whilst certain institutional structures could be dis too common in short-term consultancies which need to
mantled in this way, the memories and cultural values 'show results'- this was clearest when, over dinner,
placed upon those structures, felt not as separable (and two World Bank consultants, on the first day of their
therefore reformable) forms, but usually experienced 'mission', redesigned Bosnia's higher education
as a whole, are much more resistant to change. The system; or when a Finnish consultant, confused by
author's work on systematising welfare memories, the charm of Sarajevo and Travnik, appeared more
which addressed the wider 'patchwork' of care confident in Prijedor ('at last, now I know where I am,
provision, the importance of personal 'connections' it could be the former Soviet Union'). Indeed, the
(veze), and stressed the importance of professional importance of interpersonal relationships is crucial to
autonomy post-1974, which had developed at the the success of consultancy work, even more so in a
Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the Intemational Joumal of Social Welfare 2002 325
Stubbs
society such as BiH where 'trust' is built up over time not between capitalism and socialism, but between
and where loyalty to friends outweighs loyalty to absolutist and relativist approaches to human needs in
ideas. Consultants are remembered less for their ideas which outcomes matter 'poverty' may well be a
than for their jokes, their idiosyncracies, their manners 'discourse', but people still die from it (Clarke, 1998:
and so on. At a more structural level, there is a danger 183) but in which these outcomes are seen as always
of misrepresenting reality, in terms of a denial of the more complex, contradictory and contested than the
levels of corruption, the absence of a state (or the mere imposition, in local fields, of 'global scripts'.
development of virtual or 'nco-feudal' state structures) Whilst it is certainly true that one particular historical
and the deep significance of systematic oppression and and spatial form - 'the welfare state' - has been
power relations. Making sense of all of this, theo attacked 'from above' (through neo-liberalism) and
retically, is even more complex. 'from below' (as 'statist'; as failing to address
ethnicised and gender-based inequalities; insuf
ficiently responsive to users' demands; and so on),
Globalisation, welfare regimes and discourses of
the lesson from this cannot be a return to old
power
certainties or, indeed, a nai've, decontextualised and
It is certainly the case that a literature on globalisation ahistorical view of the possibility of an 'international
and social policy (cf. Deacon, Hulse & Stubbs, 1997) welfare state' (Townsend, quoted in Deacon, Hulse &
has focused little on the interconnections between the Stubbs, 1997: 9). In other words, a 'global social
different levels at which policy is made; much less the reformist project' (op. cit., 1997: 25-27) is in danger
impacts on, and interactions with, welfare subjects. In of a peculiar silence about the social relations of
retrospect, the work fails to address fundamental welfare, and the implications of a global expert-led
debates about how global social policy analysis should social reformist project for welfare subjects, no less
be conducted, which remained unresolved at national silenced by it than by other powerful gazes.
and comparative levels. The book, and much of the There is a need to interrogate recent work on
work of the Globalism and Social Policy Programme 'welfare regimes' as the basis for an attempt to outline
(http://www.stakes.fi/gaspp)whichfollowedit.isin a new theoretical paradigm for the study of social
danger of an uncritical 'scaling up' of some of the welfare and social policy of more value in under
narrower foci of mainstream British social policy standing the proeess of welfare reform and trans
analysis, obsessed with administrative details; national policy transfers. The concept of 'welfare
constructing typologies of welfare regimes; and regimes', at first glance, does not look to be
underpinned by a fundamental belief that such particularly appropriate for the task in hand, with its
analysis, particularly when supported by 'hard facts', origins in mainstream Anglo-Saxon social admini
can and will make things better. Within this stration, albeit as refined by Esping-Anderson's classic
positivistic approach, there is little room for an analysis of the clustering of welfare states into three
emerging 'cultural' perspective on welfare that regime types (Esping-Anderson, 1990). Subsequently,
focuscs much more on the social relations of welfare; the approach has been adapted to embrace societies in
the role of biographies, subjectivities and memories; transition and developing countries, with a funda
and the need for forms of reflexivity and attention to mental break from the study only of 'the mix of social
the minutiae of everyday life constructed within, and policy measures carried out by the state' (Davis, 2001:
itself constructive of, 'welfare' as a lived experience 80) to focus on 'the interdependent way in which
(Freeman, Chamberlayne, Cooper & Rustin, \999). welfare is produced and allocated between the state,
Indeed, it is, more often, intemational NGOs who raise market, civil society and the family' (DFID, 2000).
these issues, albeit in ways which do not connect with This notion of the 'welfare mix' has become the
local meanings. dominant way of conceptualising global welfare,
There is clearly a need, therefore, for consultancy underpinned by a recognition of the importance of a
models to be based on a study of social welfare in wider range of actors and organisations, and more
which any prescriptions are based on rigorous, thick, attention to informal strategies, as key determinants of
ethnographic description; favouring policies where livelihoods. This prefigures a 'political economy
universal entitlements coexist with a recognition of approach' which 'embeds welfare institutions in the
diversity and a commitment to a plurality of provision; "deep structures" of social reproduction', forcing
in which material needs and the non-material need for researchers 'to analyse social policy not merely in
voice 'enabling ... people to develop their own ... technical but in power terms' (Gough, 2001: 169), and
social scripts' (ibid.: 279) - are both treated as outlining essential components of an 'extended
important; and in which due weight is placed on both welfare mix' (Table 1).
the content and the process of reform measures and Even expressed in this form, a number of serious
policy advice. This suggests a revised 'Third Way', problems remain unresolved. Of the four spheres and
326 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare 2002
Globalisation, memory and welfare regimes in transition
eight components, that of 'community' seems be subordinated in global arenas in which policy actors
insufficiently theoretically rigorous - a case could be claim discourses of both care and control, and of needs
made for placing 'civil society' as a core concept, even and rights, speaking for professionals and even more
though there are as many conceptual difficulties here so, for welfare subjects, rather than dialoguing with
as with 'community'. In this case, a wider range of and listening to them. If policy-making agents
non-state domestic and supra-national actors would dominate, then professionals are often co-opted, with
need to be included, as the conflation of 'civil society' social workers, doctors and so on, often incorporated
with 'NOOs' is a product of a very narrow under in multi-disciplinary policy reform teams, which
standing of this sphere (cf. Stubbs, 1999a), neglecting rarely, if ever, include any representation of users of
community-based organisations (CBOs), social services. Again, the precise contours of these
movements and other local initiatives. In addition, configurations will vary considerably - it is not
some of the components are 'structures' (global unusual, for example, to find alliances between local
markets), some are 'strategies' (international and international professionals and international
household strategies), and most others are 'agents' policy-makers to force system change on local policy
(MNCs, for example). Even here, many agents are left actors. The table shows the need to address agents,
out, notably international consultancy companies. discourses and practices in more sophisticated ways.
Crucially, the approach needs to be adapted further
to see welfare regimes as 'generative cultures', crucial
New directions: a polHical economy of memory and
for understanding 'the generation and operation of
welfare regimes
professional/power regimes' (Knowles, 1999: 240).
Seeing welfare regimes and their target populations as Most importantly, this extended notion of welfare
'composed through the various discourses which regimes and discourses of power introduces a level of
converge around them' (ibid: 245) which are 'the indeterminacy to welfare systems, by which is meant
product of shifting meanings, priorities and profes that it is becoming increasingly difficult to predict the
sional responsibilities' (ibid: 246), shifts the focus real meanings of welfare systems from a modelling of
onto 'disciplinarity' in all its dimensions, so that 'the their components, however sophisticated this becomes.
local micro-operations of welfare' (ibid: 249) are as This calls into question two dominant strands within
important, and constantly cut across macro-reform the political-theoretical literature, one of which
projects and programmes, often in unexpected ways. introduces a 'magical' notion of 'civil society' pro
Seeing the complex interactions between three broad vision as preferable to state-based approaches and the
groups of agents: 'policy makers', 'professionals' and other, inverting this, reproduces an uncritical support
'welfare subjects', framed within particular discourses for public provision regardless of the lived experience
and practices (cf. Hansen, 1997), adds another of welfare subjects. In fact, a much more fundamental
dimension to an 'extended welfare regime approach' distinction can and should be drawn between
(Table 2). professionally based state and civil society appro
Notwithstanding similar conceptual problems to aches, and approaches that are primarily user-led and
those in Table 1, this addition serves to focus attention driven by the demands of oppressed groups. The social
on the 'comparative advantage' of globalised policy relations of what might best be described as 'welfare
making over international professional associations paradigms' turn out to be much looser and incomplete
and transnational solidarities amongst welfare than even the most nuanced 'welfare regime' approach
subjects. Both of these exist, of course, but tend to can describe. One searches, in vain. in some of the
Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare 2002 327
Stubbs
most recent work on 'welfare regimes' in development sphere, global experts met up with "needy" local
contexts to hear the voice of service users and the experts with the former using the latter to ground
everyday lives of the poorest groups in particular their poverty discourse, and the latter using the former
societies. In addition, there is a need to restore notions to secure and promote their own professional
of historical and spatial specificity, so that these ascendancy' (Haney, 2000: 57). The absence of any
concepts never mean the same thing in different places ethnographic detailing of the 'men in expensive suits'
at different times, even though a global policy from the IMF and World Bank, supposedly 'armed
discourse pretends exactly this. Reformist programmes with neoliberal economic theory' (ibid.: 50), meeting
tend to miss the need to focus on the study of welfare local experts, diminishes this account in terms of its
paradigms 'from the bottom up' (Freeman et al., 1999: stated intention to explore how 'discursive exchanges
276), and there is little reflexive examination of how translated into institutional changes that altered the
policy-makers and advisors, professionals and service terms, the organization, and the connotations of
users meet, or more often miss each other, discursively welfare' (ibid.: 50).
and in practice, in local settings framed within global Janine Wedel's pioneering study of US aid to
meanings. Russia, in which a group of consultants best defined as
Within this, recent work on the politics of memory 'transactors' with an illusive status, working in 'flexi
is of major importance in restoring notions of temporal organisations' able to switch identity situationally
and spatial specificity, and of bringing user (Wedel, 1999), is important, providing it is not at the
perspectives in social welfare from margin to centre. expense of an understanding that there is, still,
Seeing memory as socially constructed suggests that institutional memory and relatively stable organi
different collective memories, in the sense of 'versions sational culture in some supranational agencies such
of the past' (Zavirsek, 1999: 71), are always struggling as the World Bank and that, in many cases, the advice
for dominance within welfare paradigms, and that of consultants can be predicted as a result of their
recovering (literally re-membering), and giving space country of origin and/or donor agency for whom they
to, the memories of devalued social groups, or even work. Hence, global welfare can be seen as much more
recognising the importance of these groups' self a question of trans-national than post-national
imposed silences, are crucial to any progressive meanings. The need to address global welfare reform
project (cf. hooks, 1989). In a sense, this introduces as complex and contradictory is outlined further in the
a more profound set of questions of 'how the past is call for an ethnography of welfare reform underpinned
dealt with in transitional moments' (Barahona de by an anthropology of policy.
Brito, Gonzalez-Enriquez & Aguilar, 200 I: 19). Con
ceiving of 'transition' as involving both 'enormous
Conclusions: new anthropology/new welfare?
changes' and 'significant continuities' (Lampland,
2000: 209), shows how important collective memories Recent work on new anthropology and global
are in societies undergoing rapid social change, and ethnography may be crucial in a number of respects.
suggests the need for ethnographic work to counter a An emerging anthropological approach to policy
'transitology' literature which 'explains little about 'treats the models and language of decision-makers
how people have actually experienced ... dramatic as ethnographic data to be analysed' (Shore & Wright,
political, economic and sociocultural changes' 1997: xiii). This is part of an increasingly important
(Berdahl, 2000: 3). attempt by ethnographers to 'study up' (Clifford,
In the sphere of social welfare, there is a dearth of 1997: 29), by focusing on elite institutions in the same,
ethnographic accounts of the reform process. Deacon or similar, way, as subordinate groups were studied.
et al. 's study of the role of global agencies and their Of course, just as the older connections between
personnel is sensitive to debates and disagreements anthropologists and missionaries forced a need for the
within and between supra-national actors, but is former to make clear that they seek 'to understand and
focused on the content of reform at the expense of not to govern, to collaborate and not to exploit'
process (especially Deacon, Hulse & Stubbs, 1997: (Clifford, 1997: 65), newer links between ethno
Ch. 4), and so preoccupied with systems studies of graphers and consultants, particularly as 'fieldwork'
social policy and social protection that the impact of becomes 'travel', and 'vignettes replace theory'
social service reforms on welfare users is neglected (Burawoy, 2000: 341), are also problematic.
completely. Conversely, Haney's important study of The possibility of a theoretically routed ethno
welfare reform in Hungary combines a nuanced graphy and ethnohistory of welfare, focusing on the
account of the impact of reforms on professionals interface between regimes and subjects, is both
and their clients, and a plea for 'ethnohistories' to necessary and complex. It requires a 'multi-voiced'
support contemporary ethnographies, with a crudc account of diverse practices and discourses, through a
suggestion that 'in the newly "democratized" state multiplication of research sites. Above all, these
328 '1:) Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International lournal of Social Welfare 2002
Globalisation, memory and welfare regimes in transition
ethnographic accounts, whilst seeking to reveal the unintended consequences or be subverted, so that
micro-dimensions of power relationships, would need international agencies 'in a hurry' are replaced by
to adopt classical cthnography's concern to more dynamic links between action research and
'appreciate' the life-worlds of all of the different policy development, based on an explicit awareness of
groups studied the World Bank 'men in suits' as the role of different elites in the policy reform process,
much as the drug-user elient of a welfare agency. and the need to explicitly confront power relations.
Perhaps even more importantly, the linkages between Within all of this, basing reform on the voice of
diverse welfare worlds would need to be traced, welfare subjects would seem to be a much more
analysed and rendered problematic, rather than democratic, socially just and inclusive approach than
asserted as inevitable. The lengthening chains of that which dominates currently.
interactions within welfare reform, so that it is never
clear exactly how and where policy is made, renders
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