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https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.44.2019.2.131-154
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Let's Count and Manage - and Forget the Rest: Understanding Numeric Rationalization in Human Service Provision
Zählen und Managen - und den Rest vergessen: Nummerische Rationalisierung von Humandienstleistungen
[journal article]
Abstract
In recent times, the development of Western welfare states has been strongly influenced by regulatory and managerial approaches that embody what this special issue refers to as ‘governing by numbers’. This article delineates this development by using the example of the human service industry in Germ... view more
In recent times, the development of Western welfare states has been strongly influenced by regulatory and managerial approaches that embody what this special issue refers to as ‘governing by numbers’. This article delineates this development by using the example of the human service industry in Germany. The analysis is embedded in a macrosociological perspective on blurring boundaries between the capitalistic (market) economy and the welfare state, arguing that a certain kind of (instrumentalist) numeric rationalization has spilled over from the former to the latter and sets limits to what is named ‘human development rationality’ within the operational core of involved organizations. Drawing on case study evidence from four different areas, it is shown in which dimensions this movement takes shape and how it fosters the crowding-out of elements inherent to this rationality. However, due to the proliferation of ever more ‘perfectionist’ expectations concerning quality issues, this crowding out provokes various provisional organizational and institutional responses. While the latter make production processes more volatile overall, there is no end of history regarding the struggle between instrumental rationality and countervailing forces within contemporary welfare states.... view less
Keywords
social support; health care delivery system; quantification; indicator; Federal Republic of Germany; social economics; social management; welfare state; case study; welfare; theory; rationalization; New Public Management
Classification
Social Work, Social Pedagogics, Social Planning
Free Keywords
Social theory; instrumental rationality; human development; social and healthcare services
Document language
German
Publication Year
2019
Page/Pages
p. 131-154
Journal
Historical Social Research, 44 (2019) 2
Issue topic
Governing by Numbers - Key Indicators and the Politics of Expectations
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed