Introduction: Interrogating Welfare Stigma

Abstract

Recent years have seen increased attention given to welfare stigma in the related domains of social policy and sociological scholarship. Theoretically, this marks the revival of a concept with a long history that has ebbed and flowed in social policy and sociological research (Pinker, Reference Pinker1970; Spicker, Reference Spicker1984; Goffman, Reference Goffman1990 [1963]; Page, 2015 [1984]; Scambler, Reference Scambler2019; Tyler, Reference Tyler2020). This revival is undoubtedly related to the welfare reforms that have unfolded in the ‘hostile decade’ (Farnsworth and Irving, Reference Farnsworth and Irving2021) of welfare austerity. Yet Pinker’s (Reference Pinker1970) earlier contribution reminds us that stigma is a habitual technique for rationing ‘scarce’ welfare resources, remarking that it is the most common expression of coercion and violence in democratic societies. In this themed section we approach welfare stigma not as a discrete crisis-related component of welfare states, but as something that requires deeper interrogation. Stigma is therefore conceptualised here as a potent force continually informing welfare state practices that discipline and divide in complex ways, construing and determining who does not (but also who does) deserve welfare. In other words, as this themed section suggests, stigma is central to both the moral and political economy of welfare states, and to how welfare resources and welfare recipients are construed and contested. Moreover, current debates about re-imagining welfare should arguably be at the centre of these debates, as they are prompted by so many concerns. These include the ongoing violent legacies of austerity and neo-liberal inspired welfare reforms; reflections on the 80th anniversary of the Beveridge report and thinking about the possibilities and opportunities for progressive welfare reform post-pandemic; and the need to challenge welfare stigma, while also asking ‘what does welfare stigma do?’