Work as the primary ‘duty’ of the responsible citizen: a critique of this work-centric approach

Abstract

Focusing on the British case, this paper provides an analysis of the ways in which the responsibility to work is today characterised as the primary duty of the 'good' citizen. Following an exploration of how paid work is conceptualised, and the citizenship framework on which this conceptualisation rests, a brief review of relevant policy measures in this domain highlights continuity and change between the approaches of New Labour and the Coalition. This paper then explores the rhetorical devices and binary distinctions employed to uphold and sustain distinctions between the behaviour of workers and those reliant on welfare for all, or most, of their income. The contemporary valorisation of work is critiqued, with emphasis placed on the exclusionary citizenship consequences for those who do not engage in the formal labour market. A work-centric approach adopts a narrow and overly-restrictive understanding of both work and dependency, omitting analyses of inequalities amongst the working population, as well as issues of the deservingness and responsibilities of the rich. Inevitably, simplistic and unsustainable binary distinctions between 'work' and 'dependency' only serve to further exclude and demoralise those already on the margins of social exclusion.

Opioid pharmacotherapy: Treatment, regimes, constructions and control

“…These measures are underpinned by three beliefs; first, that employment can unproblematically sustain recovery, despite as we shall see later in the paper the contested evidence-base for such a claim (see also Bauld, Hay, McKell, & Carroll, 2010); second that paid work has a transformative potential, reducing poverty and social exclusion and enhancing health and well-being (Deacon & Patrick, 2011), and third, that when applicable, paid work should be the primary duty of the responsible citizen (Patrick, 2012). There is also a further dimension: successive governments have made little attempt to disguise that the high proportion of PDUs claiming welfare benefits is morally unacceptable, as well as detrimental to recovery; justifying policy interventions transferred from the field of criminal justice which make PDUs face 'tough choices' between accessing drug treatment or facing the consequences in the form of (benefit) sanctions.…”

Exclusionary employment in Britain’s broken labour market

“…There is a great deal of continuity with the narratives of the previous New Labour government (Wiggan, 2012) but there are also important differences in emphasis. Employment has long been seen as the key route out of poverty and to social inclusion but, as Patrick (2012) notes, the transformative potential of paid work receives a particularly marked emphasis in the Coalition documents. Work is seen as having wide-ranging benefits, beyond the reduced risk of poverty.…”

‘I feel I'm Giving Something Back to Society’: Constructing the ‘Active Citizen’ and Responsibilising Foodbank Use

“…Instead, participants emphasised an alternative form of citizenship through their 'active unemployment' status, which demonstrates a commitment to the idea that in practice paid work is the route to valorised citizenship (Patrick, 2012).…”

“…Employment minister Priti Patel described foodbanks as playing 'a vital role in welfare provision' and argued 'there is no robust evidence that directly links sanctions and foodbank use' (Hansard, 2015). Accompanying this rhetoric is a distinct 'deepening of personal responsibility' (Patrick, 2012) and increased focus on conditionality attached to the government's welfare reform agenda (Dwyer and Wright, 2014: 27). Donoghue (2013: 88-9) has commented that ultimately conditionality 'implies an active/passive binary whereby citizens are simultaneously in need of empowerment while also being actively responsibilised', an argument which can be applied to the rhetoric and policy measures surrounding increasing welfare conditionality and foodbank use in the UK.…”