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Learning from the “Milwaukee challenge”
Author(s) -
Hughes Mark Alan
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of policy analysis and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.898
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1520-6688
pISSN - 0276-8739
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6688(199623)15:4<562::aid-pam3>3.0.co;2-f
Subject(s) - metropolitan area , welfare , work (physics) , population , scale (ratio) , central city , economic growth , labour economics , regional science , political science , geography , sociology , economics , demography , engineering , mechanical engineering , cartography , archaeology , law
The consequences of administering welfare‐to‐work programs through county‐level agencies may be the most important issue omitted from current discussions of welfare reform. An administrative geography of county welfare agencies fragments metropolitan labor markets, consigning central county residents to job‐poor areas and isolating them from job‐rich suburban counties. This paper illustrates this effect by mapping employment/population shifts and administrative boundaries in metropolitan Milwaukee. The paper ends with the suggestion that county agencies be allowed to play variable rather than fixed functional roles in a labor exchange process that must now accommodate a metropolitan scale.