"Whose Needs Are Being Served?" Quantitative Metrics and the Reshaping of Social Services

In: Studies in political economy: SPE ; a socialist review, Heft 77, S. 195-209

Abstract

In this article in the forum on Quantitative Indicators, the author questions the hegemony of statistical data as the basis for Canadian political, social, & economic decision-making to argue that current management models are paving the way for reliance on low-wage, temporary, & unpaid workers. A discussion of the management/worker/client dynamic in care work contextualizes a critical examination of the New Public Management (NPM) & other performance based management models that advance the priorities of budget-cutting & pro-market rationality, decrease client care & access. The perverse incentive to increase efficiency in public & nonprofit services is antithetical to increased profit is reflected in worker resistance to the NPM, & the complexities of the conflicting power structures described by Abu-Lughod. The author concludes that quantitative metrics in the social services expand bureaucracy & contribute the standardization of work, & the deskilling of the workforce. References. J. Harwell