About Waiting: A Reading from Social Policies and Emotions in the Context of a Pandemic

Abstract

The pandemic declared in 2020 has implied extreme transformations. In the Argentine case, measures were announced to provide relief to the sectors defined as the most affected, within which the so-called emergency family income (EFI) was established. The EFI’s management, implementation, access and collection method underwent a digitalisation process, enabling access through official and nonofficial channels. The nonofficial channels include Facebook Groups, where the recipients of social policies exchange information, doubts and advice. This article, based on virtual ethnography, aims to explore the emotions linked to the management and perception of EFI. In particular, we address a practice that has become relevant in the aforementioned context: waiting. It has been observed that the barriers between registration and access to the EFI transfer have implied different types of waiting on the part of the receiving population. We conclude that waiting has become an operative element in the implementation of social policies.

Have Social Policy Responses to COVID-19 Been Institutionalised?

“…Two articles included in this themed section (Cena and Dettano, 2022; Pearson et al ., 2022) showed how preferred paths of service delivery were not in alignment with the consciousness of collective welfare. The push for a personalised and consumerist model of care for disabled people in OECD countries came under strain and almost led to the breakdown of services for disabled persons during the lockdown.…”

“…In other words, domiciliary care services were not recognised as an arrangement of collective welfare. A study of the experiences of waiting for the relief measure of Emergency Family Income (EFT) in Argentina (Cena and Dettano, 2022) serves as an important element of insights into how citizens interface with institutionalised practices. In other words, institutions often miss the ‘felt-need’ of the citizens.…”

Políticas sociales y prácticas de consumo: los y las receptoras de transferencias de ingresos del Municipio de La Matanza pre y en pandemia

“…Por medio de su hacer y componentes, asignan roles que posicionan a las personas receptoras como responsables de su propia situación de carencia de trabajo y/o de ingresos. Es decir, al organizar la distribución de cargas, beneficios y poder entre los grupos y categorías de personas, producen e inciden en sus condiciones de vida y sus modos de sentir (Adelantado et al, 1998;Danani, 2004;MacAuslan y Riemenschneider, 2011;Tonkens et al, 2013;De Sena, 2016;De Sena y Scribano, 2020;Cena y Dettano, 2022).…”

Introduction: Social Policy Responses and Institutional Reforms in the Pandemic

“…The fourth article included in this themed section is from the Argentinian context (Cena and Dettano, 2022). The authors examine the distance between policy intention and implementation through a policy ethnography.…”