GENDER, RACE, AND CLASS IN THE LOCAL WELFARE-STATE - MOVING BEYOND REGULATION THEORY IN ANALYZING THE TRANSITION FROM FORDISM

In this paper we attempt to provide a conceptual framework which can h elp inform our analysis and understanding of current transformations t aking place within the welfare state. We argue that the French school of regulationist literature, though able to provide a broad frame of r eference for analysing contemporary shifts in economy and society, nee ds to be supplemented by an analysis which focuses on the racialised a nd gendered character of the welfare state. In the paper the ways in w hich the 'universal' welfare state has operated to exclude minorities and marginalised groups are charted, and we argue that in practice the Fordist mode of social regulation (MSR) operating in Britain generate d a hierarchy of oppression. This hierarchy was constituted through th e relations of class, race, and gender, and we show how these are curr ently being redefined as the British state seeks to mediate the crisis tendencies inherent in the Fordist MSR.