Modern som välfärdssubjekt - Hur medborgare formas inom amerikansk välfärdsstyrning

Sammanfattning: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 dramatically reformed the U.S. welfare system. The new federal law became a fundamental change in the structure and goal of cash assistance to welfare recipients. This thesis is looking at the liberal strategies that are directed towards the citizens involved in the welfare system in the U.S. Using the theoretical perspective of governmentality, the thesis aims to highlight strategies of shaping individuals into citizens within the reform of 1996. The study is made through a textual analysis of the reform act and its policy implementation family caps. A framework constructed of the dichotomies of dependency and independency is used to analyze the material and illustrate citizen-shaping technologies. The findings in the analysis show a great emphasis on initiative building strategies and creation of norms around citizenship. A clear opposition between the understandings of dependency and independency are made visible through constructions of desirable and undesirable citizen subjects discursively. Targeting the welfare recipients own will to empower, these strategies exemplify non-interventional modes of liberal governing.