Automating Social Inequality: How Single Mothers and Caseworkers Navigate the
Neoliberal Surveillance of 'Ontario Works, ' 1995-2015 examines the growth and impact of
surveillance practices administered by the social assistance program Ontario Works [OW]. The
purpose of this dissertation is to show the effects of the "welfare surveillance apparatus" from
the perspectives of those receiving OW as well as those administering OW benefits to better
understand what it feels like to "live" under the surveillance gaze of the declining welfare state.
Surveillance practices within government services correspond with wider neoliberal
transformations that have led to increased privatization, downsizing and deregulation, and a
reluctance of the state to accept their role to either intervene in the economy and/or mitigate
inequalities. By placing OW within the context of the international phenomenon of
neoliberalism, I contend that it this political philosophy and practice that has altered the
administration and purpose of Ontario's social assistance programs over the past twenty years. In
order to economize and undermine state aid, surveillance has become normalized under
neoliberal governments that are fixated on meeting targets, quotas and timelines, while the needs
of recipients of the services and frontline workers are rarely (or inadequately) calculated in
changing policies. However, the significance of welfare surveillance has largely escaped
academic inquiry.
