The Beveridge report and its efforts to imagine and design a welfare state from ‘cradle to crave’ can be strikingly juxtaposed with Pinker’s (1970) enduring observation that stigma is a habitual technique for rationing ‘scarce’ welfare resources, and the most common expression of coercion and violence in democratic societies. This themed section interrogates welfare stigma as a potent force continually informing welfare state practices that discipline and divide in complex ways, construing and determining who does not, but also who does, deserve welfare. As current debates about re-imagining welfare are prompted by so many concerns including the ongoing violent legacies of austerity and neo-liberal inspired welfare reforms; reflections on the 80th anniversary of the Beveridge report; and thinking about the possibilities and opportunities for progressive welfare reform post-pandemic; the need to address and challenge welfare stigma should arguably be at the centre of these debates.
The articles in this themed section address these concerns about welfare stigma in the context of neighbouring Irish and UK welfare states. The articles offer a set of critical inquiries into the experience, (re)production and resistance to welfare stigma across a range of groups of welfare recipients. By doing so, the themed section ultimately aims to challenge the production of welfare stigma and contribute to an agenda of re-imagining welfare.
McGann, M. (2021) Lived Experiences of Employment Services for People Who Are Long-Term Unemployed, Maynooth: Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5772062
McGann, M. and Murphy M. P. (2021) Special Issue: 'the dual tracks of welfare and activation reform - governance and conditionality,' Administration, 69, 2. https://sciendo.com/it/issue/ADMIN/69/2
This blog is based on an article in Social Policy and Society by Uisce Jordan. Men unable to work due to their mental health face a multitude of challenges. There is stigma related to both mental illness and welfare status, which can be experienced separately as well as intersect...
This blog is based on an article in Social Policy and Society by Nancy Evans. Mothers reliant on state support have long been the subject of moral judgements about their deservingness.
This blog is based on article in Social Policy and Society by Robert Bolton, Joe Whelan and Fiona Dukelow. What does welfare stigma do? In our state of art review article, we found stories of inner turmoil: stories about poor self-esteem and self-worth, feelings of inferiority and inadequacy, embarrassment, humiliation, and feelings of failure. In sum, we found stories of shame.