An Anthropology of Welfare: Journeying towards the Good Life

Langer, Susanne; Højlund, Susanne

doi:10.3167/aia.2011.180301

Cited by 12 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We argue that a weighing of potentialities takes place when people experience bodily sensations, and we suggest that the outcome of this weighing is contingent upon the local moral world in which sensations are sensed. In the context of the Danish middle class, 'the good (everyday) life' emphasizes creating and sustaining a socioeconomically stable and secure foundation for 'what really matters' (Kleinman 2006) or for 'faring well' (Langer and Højlund 2011). The notion of 'faring well' connects individual well-being to collective and political concerns about how to live well throughout life within a specific cultural context.…”

Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The majority of Danes do not face the uncertainty of not knowing how and when they will get their next meal, whether they can pay for their children's education, or whether they can cover their health care expenditures should they fall ill. The Danish welfare state, designed to make citizens 'fare well' through life (Langer and Højlund 2011), diminishes this kind of uncertainty. However, the Danish middle class -like all human beings -still faces the very roughness of being, meaning the potentials of illness and suffering that can disturb the course of faring well throughout life.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Am I fine?

Offersen¹,

Risør²,

Vedsted³

et al. 2020

MAT

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Woven into the fabric of human existence is the possibility of death and suffering from disease. This essential vulnerability calls forth processes of meaning making, of grappling with uncertainty and morality. In this article we explore the uncertainty and ambiguity that exists in the space between bodily sensations and symptoms of illness. Bodily sensations have the potential to become symptoms of disease or to be absorbed into ordinariness, prompting the question: how do we ascribe meaning to sensations? In the context of middle-class everyday life in Denmark, we show how different potentialities of ambiguous sensations are weighed against each other on a culturally and morally contingent continuum between normal and not normal, uncovering the complex interplay between the body, everyday life, and pervasive biomedical discourses focusing on health promotion, symptom awareness, and care seeking.

show abstract

Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Am I fine?

Offersen¹,

Risør²,

Vedsted³

et al. 2020

MAT

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The right to receive welfare benefits under neoliberal rule increasingly comes with obligations and duties, which specify how to fit in and align with the progressivity of the state. Reflecting on welfare and its significance in shaping what we consider to be 'the good life', Langer and Højlund (2011) suggested that we think of welfare as the forms of assistance and benefits that allow the public to 'fare well' through life. Johnny's story certainly reminds us that 'welfare institutions are designed not only to take care of people's basic needs but also to enable them to fare well in accordance with the dominant norms of society' (Gulløv, 2011, p. 22).…”

Section: Faring Well In (Work) Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare transformations and expectations of sameness. Living on the margins in Denmark

Merrild

Andersen

2019

Nordic Journal of Social Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In Denmark, as in other welfare societies worldwide, the organisation and ideology of welfare are becoming increasingly influenced by neoliberal ideas. In practice, this means that the original intention behind the provision of social support, which was grounded in the notion of social responsibility, is gradually being pushed aside by notions of responsibilisation, with concepts such as deservingness and work ethic appearing to dominate the discourse. Based on long-term fieldwork and interviews conducted with socially disadvantaged Danes living on social security, this article engages with the current debates regarding responsibility and highlights some of the challenges arising from living a life that diverges from what has been termed Danish ‘in-between middle-classness’. We argue that the divergence between the promise of welfare, the current landscape of political regulation and expectations of individual responsibility leads to new forms of uncertainty, as experienced by those who depend on the services provided by the welfare state. One implication of this is that welfare seems to increasingly be tied to an agenda of sameness, whereby citizenship stems less from a imagination of sameness than from an expectation of sameness.

show abstract

“…Moreover, childhood is, argues Gulløv, loaded with moral opinions about the nature of the child, about the best circumstances in which to grow up, what virtues a child should have in the Danish welfare state, and which knowledge and abilities are required for a future considered successful by society (Gulløv, 2011). Langer and Højlund link this socially shaped institutional trajectory to 'well-faring' in a relatively stable landscape, a relationship that mutually shapes the well-farer and his or her surroundings (Langer & Højlund, 2011:1-2). Institutionalised well-faring is how the welfare state seeks to socialise its young citizens, even out social inequalities and make childhood a secure experience while also creating future residents for the welfare state.…”

Section: Cancer Treatment and Childhood In The Danish Welfare Statementioning

confidence: 99%

Staying alive? Dealing with the Uncertainty of Childhood Cancer

Løvschal-Nielsen¹,

Andersen²,

Meinert³

2018

TFSS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article explores how institutions and individuals in Denmark deal with the uncertainty of cancer in children. Based on a seven months ethnographic fieldwork conducted on a paediatric oncology ward during the period 2011-2013, the article examines how uncertainty manifests itself in the interface between cancer treatment and institutional childhood in the Danish welfare state. The argument is based on American pragmatist philosophy and its ideas about how people respond to a hazardous world in constant transformation. Through a focus on practices, the article explores how clinical and existential uncertainty arises for children and their families, and how they deal with this by navigating their way round the more tangible forms of insecurities. Important collective attempts to circumscribe clinical uncertainty are part of this navigation, but the article argues that epidemiologically based practices of dealing with the clinical uncertainty of cancer paradoxically gives rise to existential and social uncertainty for the affected children and their families, which they struggle with during treatment and even as long-term social effects into adolescence and young adulthood. The article suggests that more attention should be paid to assist children to manage the social and existential uncertainty that emerges in the interface between being a child in cancer treatment and being a child in the Danish welfare state.

show abstract

An Anthropology of Welfare: Journeying towards the Good Life

Cited by 12 publications

References 8 publications

Am I fine?

Am I fine?

Welfare transformations and expectations of sameness. Living on the margins in Denmark

Staying alive? Dealing with the Uncertainty of Childhood Cancer

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About