Resistance and Accommodation in a Post-Welfare Social Service Organization

This article explores the complex and contradictory dynamics of client resistance to organizational rules and staff definitions in a nonprofit microenterprise devel-opment program. Micro-Enterprise, Inc. offers training and small loans to eco-nomically disadvantaged individuals who want to operate very small businesses. Although claiming to avoid the judgmental aspects of past social welfare programs, program staff recruited the “right type ” of client. Individuals who did not conform to these classifications were disadvantaged in the program. Yet, clients were far from passive in these matters. They used fluid and convergent strategies to accommodate, reconstruct, and resist the dominant program dis-course. Some strategies were individualistic whereas others were more collec-tive; some strategies produced organizational change; others reinforced negative views of the poor. Over time, concerns about client resistance and funders ’ per-ceptions led to a series of program changes. These changes reduced the oppor-tunities for collective client resistance to organizational rules and staff control. These findings also reveal the situated nature of resistance strategies. Key words: resistance; microenterprise development; welfare reform; social service programs; social reproduction Despite their role in helping the disadvantaged, traditional welfare agencieshave been criticized for promoting discourses and practices that rein-force the dominance of white, masculine, and middle class society (Quadagno and Forbes 1995; Rose 1995). However, clients are far more than passive recipients of social services and organizational labeling (Trethewey 1997; Naples 1998; Dennis 2006). They often resist oppressive images and inter-action patterns, and seek to transform organizational practices (Piven an