ESTRATIFICACION SOCIAL.

As actors played their parts according to the FPMs’ script, gaps and challenges emerged, posing a threat to the organization’s ‘conditions of felicity’ (Austin, 1975); that is, conditions necessary for a successful performance (MacKenzie, 2007) of the

138 valued good. For DAFS to perform the ‘good’, the social, political, technical, and

material conditions had to be in place; otherwise, the GP might not always be ‘good’. But just when conditions seemed to securely frame DAFS’ enactment of GP,

overflows began to emerge, causing a disruption in the production of the defined and known ‘good’. When conditions appeared stable for the sociotechnical agencement to perform, the frames defining the boundaries of GP made visible those that were excluded or denied by the framing (Callon, 2007, 2010). The excluded, however, were not limited to incarcerated parents; they extended to other non-paying cases and experts who knew how to deal with them better. Their identification and inclusion caused DAFS’ agencement to shift and be reconfigured so conditions for

performation could be re-established.

In creating the condition for the ‘most difficult cases’ to perform, DAFS decided to make room for a social worker. Although not a practice in the child support program, DAFS management took the initiative and hired a full-time social worker to address the concerns of these difficult cases. Her inclusion in the network, like all the rest, was driven by the measures. As Bill said,

We’ve created a Social Work Unit, hired a licensed social worker in order to… those cases where the people are saying, I’m disabled, I can’t pay. Well, let’s steer… we’ll do the social security process, there might be a benefit in lieu of child support available for the kid. Or, if there is not, they end up with SSI and the case closes. That helps statistic… so we’ve left no stone

uncovered. But, everything we do, every report we work, every…the CMT tool, Case Management Tool, those filters for different parameters, everything we’ve set up are based on those performance measures. (Bill,

InterviewManagement)

The so-called ‘difficult cases’ are the cases that have barriers to making regular payments, like homelessness or a permanent medical disability, thus affecting DAFS’ capacity to produce GP. If carefully and appropriately assessed, these cases may be eligible for social security benefits that could go towards their child support obligation or may satisfy the criteria to have their cases closed. By having a dedicated person with the expertise to review these difficult cases, DAFS could channel the

139 right resources to help these cases perform or keep them out of DAFS’ network by

closing them. One particular case24 _{involved a noncustodial parent that had not made}

a payment for 11 years due to ‘chronic homelessness’ after suffering from a brain injury. Despite his repeated attempts to apply for social security benefits, the Social Security Administration kept denying his case due to insufficient documentation in support of his application. When his case was reviewed by DAFS’ social worker, he was referred to the appropriate services that could perform the necessary medical examination to determine his overall health condition. After securing the medical records he needed to serve as supporting evidence for his social security application, he received a favorable response and his child support case was eventually closed. This illustrates how the inclusion of a social worker to conduct a thorough assessment of cases, the appropriate agencies to address the noncustodial parent’s concerns, and the established protocols to coordinate their work created the right condition for the non-paying case to be closed, be counted as ‘good’, and contribute to the

performation of the measures. Indeed, by having a social worker on board, DAFS was finally able to ‘assess these cases and help them get social security benefits so we can garnish that money; or the kids can get derivative benefits, we can count that as paying cases ‘cause we can credit the [noncustodial parent]’ (Kay, FG7Mixed).

Hiring a social worker proved to be beneficial to DAFS’ overall standing in the child support community. Not only did the organization manage to deal with non- performing cases; they also gained a reputation for being innovative, as indicated in a featured article in a major child support publication. Indeed, as Paula said,

Nevada was the first State that got a licensed Social Worker to help our homeless population, our population who was disabled but social security denied them because they didn’t fill out the paperwork correctly…So we got a Social Worker to help this section of the caseload find a resolution so child support wasn’t spinning their wheels trying to collect money from people who just couldn’t pay it (Paula_InterviewSrStaff)

Prior to their understanding of the FPMs, caseworkers did not give top priority to cases with difficulty making regular payments. Since these cases did not have the

24 _{This story was reported by DAFS’ social worker in a major child support publication published}

140 ability to contribute to DAFS’ ‘total collection measure’ (i.e. GP1.0), they were often disregarded or pushed aside. But when DAFS’ turned into an entity that began performing the FPMs’ ‘good’, it started tracking and classifying cases, as well as monitoring measurable outputs and outcomes. Management and caseworkers, after noticing the ‘difficult cases’ and their impact on DAFS’ performance scores, were prompted to consider possible solutions to turn these cases into a measurable ‘good’. They began noticing community organizations that could help non-performing cases acquire the necessary conditions to perform. Soon, a new network of actors (i.e. tracking devices, ‘difficult cases’, social worker, community organizations,

specialized knowledge and expertise, etc.) was formed and, through their collective action, generated the FPMs’ GP. With their new links and connections, employees began adopting a culture of assistance towards delinquent payers and developed a more favorable opinion of noncustodial parents. Consequently, the once ‘deadbeat’ became a person desperately needing support in order to produce the measured ‘good’. As Kay remarked,

…We do so much outreach with Salvation Army, and the Project Homeless Connect, and the…Hope for Prisoners, where we have a whole Outreach Team, where there’s people from all the different Units that are part of this team to try to intercept cases and really coordinate with the other agencies. ‘Cause they end up here anyways. My understanding is we didn’t use to have that. So, we’ve really grown and shifted the mindset from one that’s punitive and saying, ‘how come you’re not paying your child support or you’re a deadbeat’, where it’s more, ‘okay what can we do to help you. There’s gotta be issues. There must be some barriers and problems. Let’s try to do what we can to help you and move towards a solution-focused model’, instead of just throwing people in jail. We really give them a lot of chances. (Kay,

FG7Mixed)

Hence, with the new community partners brought into the fold and a new

sociotechnical agencement created, DAFS’ difficult cases were no longer being set aside.

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