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Making a Life on Mean Welfare

Voices from Multicultural Sydney
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Making a Life on Mean Welfare delves into the challenges faced by welfare recipients in Australia's social security system, which provides minimal benefits tied to strict conditions. Emma Mitchell combines ethnographic research in a socio-economically diverse area of Sydney with her own background of growing up in a welfare-dependent family. The book highlights the varied cultural strengths people use to navigate welfare, offering a nuanced perspective often missing in discussions about life on welfare.
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Format: Hardback
$20299
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book suits readers interested in social policy, welfare studies, and Australian social issues, including academics, students, and those seeking a deeper understanding of the complexities faced by welfare users.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Based on ethnographic fieldwork and the author's own experience, this book explores how diverse welfare users navigate the personal and practical hurdles of Australia's social security system.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

We are often told that mean welfare is what the public wants. Whether or not that's true, Making a Life on Mean Welfare encourages us to at least be honest about what that entails.

It explores how diverse welfare users navigate the personal and practical hurdles of Australia's so-called social security system, where benefits are deliberately meagre and come with strings attached. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a region of Sydney known for ethnic diversity and socio-economic disadvantage, Emma Mitchell brings her own experience of belonging to a poor family long reliant on welfare to her research.

This book shows the different cultural resources that people bring to welfare encounters with a sensitivity and subtlety that are often missing in both sympathetic and cynical accounts of life on welfare.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Mark Peel of Monash University praises the book as an "illuminating, warm and humane account" that starts with recognising the knowledge and capacities of the disadvantaged. Karen Soldatic from Western Sydney University describes it as a "timely and extremely important book" that vividly presents the lived experiences of Australians on social welfare and proposes socially just welfare futures.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781447353690

Publisher: Bristol University Press

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 16 December 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Policy Press

Illustration: 2 Tables, black and white

Audience: General / adult, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Width: 156.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 142

About the Author

Emma Mitchell is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Urban Geographies of Care in the Institute for Culture and Society at the Western Sydney University.

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