Welfare Dependency

Robert MacDonald

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

This chapter considers how ordinary social practices, in this case claiming state welfare benefi ts because of worklessness and fi nancial necessity, have come to be seen as a form of deviance, particularly within the popular media and by some politicians. As a consequence large swaths of the working class have become demonised. Some might look to welfare claimants for signs of resistance to contemporary capitalism’s degrading forms of work, or might think to fi nd examples of canny ‘ducking and diving’ that outwits the state benefi ts bureaucracy. Yet what many sociologists, social policy researchers and psychologists will tell them is that, in fact, unemployed people tend to have deeply conventional views about the moral, social and fi nancial value of working.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationShades of Deviance
Subtitle of host publicationA Primer on Crime, Deviance and Social Harm
EditorsRowland Atkinson
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Chapter29
Pages128-132
Number of pages5
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9781317907220
ISBN (Print)9781315848556
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes

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