We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
'Show me you're trying, that's all...': Exploring the discursive impact of punishments and incentives in the Welsh homelessness system as 'controlled conditionalities'.
- Authors
England, Edith
- Abstract
Discussion around sanctions within the welfare state has been largely framed within a Wacquantian understanding of punitive modes of governance, neglecting the discursive life of conditionality as a source of normative social control. I use a Critical Discourse Analysis of extended interviews with 98 actors within the Welsh homelessness system to propose that conditionality operates through sanctions to further an agenda of creating a context responsibilisation and empowerment. I draw upon Deleuze's Societies of Control approach, proposing the term 'controlled conditionalities' to account for the power of illusory freedom through opportunity, operating through tight control of choice. I show (1) that despite the changes to homelessness law in Wales, Wacquantian‐style punitive conditionality is perceived as largely irrelevant by those engaged in administering the system; (2) 'controlled conditionalities' operate through abandonment of welfare citizens (3) 'controlled conditionalities' operate primarily through curating a desire in applicants to be recognised as normative and compliant. The paper offers a nuanced counter to a prevailing understanding of punitivity as a dominant and effective form of welfare governance and advances theoretical approaches through the development of the concept of controlled conditionalities.
- Subjects
PUNISHMENT; SOCIAL control; MONETARY incentives; HOUSING; HOMELESSNESS; PUBLIC welfare policy; CONDITIONALITY (International relations)
- Publication
Social Policy & Administration, 2024, Vol 58, Issue 1, p141
- ISSN
0144-5596
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/spol.12949