Framing Welfare Recipients in Political Discourse : Political Farming through Material Need Assistance

KISSOVÁ, Lenka. Framing Welfare Recipients in Political Discourse : Political Farming through Material Need Assistance. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, 209 pp. ISBN 978-3-030-63578-7. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63579-4.

Basic information

• Original name: Framing Welfare Recipients in Political Discourse : Political Farming through Material Need Assistance
• Authors: KISSOVÁ, Lenka (703 Slovakia, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: Cham, Switzerland, 209 pp. 2021.
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Book on a specialized topic
• Field of Study: 50403 Social topics
• Country of publisher: Switzerland
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• Publication form: printed version "print"
• WWW: URL
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14410/21:00122383
• Organization unit: Faculty of Education
• ISBN: 978-3-030-63578-7
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63579-4
• Keywords (in Czech): politický diskurz; dávky v hmotné nouzi; střední Evropa; Romové; nerovnosti; vytváření hranice; sekuritizace; governmentalita
• Keywords in English: political discourse; material need assistance; Central Europe; Romana; inequalities; boundary making; securitisation; governmentality
• Tags: rivok, topvydavatel
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

This book shows that the categories policy-makers bring up in debates about workfare are primarily interlinked with negative images and perceptions. Social assistance, workfare, and beneficiaries are associated with crime, the need for behavioural adjustments, social system abuse, irresponsibility, speculation, and the need for protection of public order and interests. I argue that governing societies through security, biologisation, the normalisation of self-responsibility, and through moral claims, redefines relationships among members of different groups, potentially leading to legitimation and institutionalisation of restrictions and control-oriented measures. Moreover, in Central Europe, boundary-making through material need assistance regulation assumes an ethnic dimension. Via stories, anecdotes, and collocations, hidden ethnicisation occurs, resulting in various forms of symbolic and social exclusion and in the deprivation of fundamental rights of beneficiaries, especially those with a Romani background.