ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the contributions of selected street-level studies and the cumulative picture of workfare emerging from them. Contemporary street-level studies build on the foundational work of socio-legal scholars who in the late 1960s began to probe the influence of street-level discretion in virtually remaking formal law. A major contribution of contemporary street-level studies has been to reveal governance and management reforms as a second track for policy change, one that achieves policy change indirectly, outside of more visible legislative processes. US studies clearly show that the street-level logic of choice has been powerfully and systematically affected by performance measurement, a practice that has become nearly ubiquitous, extending across public and private, for-profit and non-profit agencies. Studies shows how workfare practices are effectively hollowed out when caseworkers have limited capacity to support claimants, by providing either income assistance or services that could help them make it in the labour market.
