Between risk and emergency: The increasing police approach in social interventions strategies

Abstract

Many voices warn us of the eminent end of the social model that shaped the Welfare State as we know it. The disappearance of certain social policies, however, does not mean that others do not appear with great force. In fact, the crisis is none other than the maximum expression of a transformation that has been inching its way forward for years: the appearance of a specifically neoliberal social policy that, while incorporating many elements of the Welfare State, introduces new logic in government and social management.

This article is the result of a dialogue between the works of those whose names appear above. Our intention is to untangle what we consider to be one of the central transformations in social policy on the neoliberal path: the shift towards an ever-increasing police-like approach in the management of the population. This shift (which actually goes two ways as it includes on the one hand, the make-over of police to make them appear more like social work professionals, while at the same time, the introduction of a police-like mindset into the social intervention sector), directly responds to the demands of the new government philosophy that is brought forth by neoliberal social policies.