Keeping citizens living with low incomes at arm’s length away: the responsibilization of municipal recreation access provisions

Abstract

ABSTRACT Through the lens of neoliberalism, the purpose of this paper is to illustrate the techniques of responsibilization in municipal recreation access provisions. Using data from interviews with 16 municipal recreation administrators in Atlantic Canada, we trace responsibilization through fiscal policies and administration schemes characterizing four neoliberalism tenets: privatization, efficiency, individualism, and accountability. Our findings identified four techniques of responsibilization embedded in access provisions for low-income citizens: 1) privatizing recreation provisions by off-loading programming responsibility; 2) not advertising financial assistance programmes and other informal financial support; 3) assuming accessing financial assistance programs is easy, and 4) verifying low-income status. The responsibilization inherent in these access provisions cultivates relational distance, which we suggest challenges the provisions’ ‘accessible’ nature.