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In this paper, we use intersectionality-based policy analysis (IBPA) to examine how COVID-19 income support policies enacted in Ontario, Canada, affected people living with poverty. We find that the privileging of formal labor market attachment in eligibility requirements systemically excluded constituencies most likely to be living with poverty. More broadly, these exclusions represent a retrenchment of neoliberal logics in social policy, and the rejection of universal social welfare programs. In conclusion, we suggest that the experiences of people living with poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic further highlight the need for comprehensive social welfare programs, including a universal basic income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical intervention into housing research by applying the geospatial lens of the rural-urban space (RUS) to the social problem of homelessness, a conceptual linkage absent in the Canadian context. Drawing on original data from 80 surveys, four focus groups, and a community feedback session, we identify and interrogate key local impacts of systemic shifts in the housing market and associated policy responses in Dufferin County, Ontario, a RUS community located 80km northwest of Toronto. We find that for people experiencing homelessness within RUS communities, the intersecting consequences of multiple forms of structural marginalization, such as low wages and social assistance rates and discrimination, can quickly destabilize housing. We emphasize the importance of attending to housing in RUS communities and developing housing policy strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the electoral dynamics of participatory budgeting projects in Chicago, IL, a topic neglected in the participatory democracy literature. Combining qualitative fieldwork with electoral data, I argue participatory budgeting is more likely to be adopted by elected officials who identify as progressive, face strong electoral competition, and are non-incumbents. These officials mobilize support for participatory budgeting to enhance their democratic legitimacy and build their constituency networks. In contrast to research focused on participatory budgeting as a non-partisan deliberative initiative, I attribute the uneven emergence of participatory budgeting projects in Chicago to the strategic electoral interests of aldermen, suggesting explanations of participatory budgeting focused on the drivers of the process should assign a greater role to electoral interests. More broadly, this research suggests approaching policy transfer as a contextually embedded process that precludes normative assumptions about particular policies absent a consideration of the institutional and social environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Baiocchi and Ganuza's communicativeempowerment framework to examine a case-study of participatory budgeting (PB) in Chicago, IL. Chicago hosts the longest ongoing PB project in North America: since 2009, the 49th Ward has allocated $1 million annually through PB. By 2016, the process had expanded to $6.2 million dollars of infrastructure funding in seven wards. Baiocchi and Ganuza's framework provides a mechanism for examining the relationship between the neoliberalization of municipal government and the growing popularity of PB. I argue that when one considers the empowerment dimensions of PB, the experience of Chicago has been decidedly mixed: limitations in the primacy, scope and reach of the participatory process limit the capacity of PB as currently constituted to function as a democratic challenge to elite policy making in municipal governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]