ABSTRACT
In the analysis of state welfare work, the political context of the state's production of use values replaces the economic context of the market's generation of surplus value. In Neo-Marxist theories of the state, the distinctiveness of state labour processes is seen as lying in their political location and their being subject to political contingencies. The consolidation of social work's position, from being a relatively marginal collection of roles and practices to a central and systematically organised element of welfare in the social democratic welfare state was achieved through the production of the Seebohm Report and its implementation. Clarke and Newman stress the significance of internal regimes of bureau-professionalism within the welfare state. Bureau-professionalism is a specific configuration of structures, cultures, relationships and processes of organisational co-ordination which nevertheless is shaped by location in specific contexts, for example social work's base in local government.
