Conclusion

This book has examined the relationship between inequality and social citizenship through the everyday accounts of notionally equal citizens in austerity Britain. In doing so, it has sought to establish how citizens perceive and negotiate the material and status hierarchies that condition their lives. In particular, whether and how individuals experiencing relative deprivation and affluence develop distinctive modes of reference, attachment and engagement when it comes to welfare and social citizenship. Since the Great Recession, public service reforms and fiscal recalibration have resulted in an increasingly individualistic and commodified welfare settlement in the UK. These developments have given rise to fault lines in the subjectivity and political agency of social citizens that need to be understood within and as contributing towards systemic processes of inclusion and exclusion. Through a schematic summary of the key themes and lessons that have emerged from this book, this concluding chapter considers what this reveals about the rise of anti-social citizenship and its implications for welfare policy and politics going forward.

Deliberating the structural determinants of poverty and inequality

Inequalities give rise to divergent experiences and conceptions of social citizenship. In a number of important of respects, the rich really do differ from the poor. In light of the factors contributing towards divergence and disagreement, this chapter explores how, public attitudes can both galvanise and hinder popular support for tackling poverty and inequality. To say that ‘solidarity’ or ‘recognition of mutual vulnerability’ can offer a challenge and tool to tackle inequality is true. However, the general public first need to be effectively sensitised to the causes of as well as the effects of socio-economic stratification. By raising awareness about the structural determinants of socioeconomic outcome and agency, drawing on areas of mutual policy and moral concern, and reformulating the political language surrounding poverty and inequality, it is possible to re-orient public discourse and consciousness in this area. This chapter starts by examining the roots of attitudinal disagreement around poverty and inequality. The subsequent section reflects upon what is known about the determinants of difference and suggests how support for tackling structural inequality might be strengthened. The chapter closes by discussing what implications this has for the health and efficacy of social citizenship in a democratic, institutional and procedural capacity.

Identity, difference and citizenship: a fraying tapestry?

Liberal citizenship is often critiqued for its failure to recognize and accommodate heterogeneous identities and social differences. Amidst rising structural inequality and an increasingly bifurcated system of ‘poor’ and ‘rich’ citizenship, this chapter illustrates how the tensions arising between citizenship status and identity politics are aggravated by the asymmetrical effects of welfare austerity. The chapter starts by exploring how gender, ethnicity and race differentially structure the lived experiences of ‘poor’ and ‘rich’ citizens. By drawing on a number of examples from qualitative fieldwork, I explore how gender affects experiences of single parenthood and the relations between racial inequality and residential segregation. Within the context of welfare austerity, the warp of citizenship and the weft of contemporary identity politics have begun to unravel with those failing to fulfil the ideals of neoliberal citizenship increasingly alienated from the equality of status notionally guaranteed through collective membership. As a result, those experiencing socio-material marginality lack the discursive resources and means of collective identification to engage in sustained political struggle for their identity, rights and recognition. This significantly affects the political subjectivity of marginalised citizens and their engagement with citizenship structures in a way that stifles the progressivity of welfare politics.

Heterodox citizens? Conceptions of social rights and responsibilities

This chapter explores the extent to which the rich and the poor deviate or conform to the dominant ideals of citizenship. To do so, the chapter starts by outlining the key welfare discourses and moral repertoires that individuals draw upon to validate their understanding and enactment of citizenship rights and responsibilities. The evidence presented suggests that affluent citizens tend to adopt a contractarian understanding of the relationship between citizenship rights and responsibilities. Overall, lived experiences of deprivation appear to cultivate a heterodox conception of social citizenship that is enacted through private and public strategies to either challenge, subvert or overcome the prevailing paradigm of welfare austerity, including its distributional effects. Across both socio-economic groups, these differences appear to give rise to unique strategies of resistance, endorsement and resignation to existing citizenship structures. The chapter concludes by exploring the differing character of citizen engagement exhibited by those experiencing affluence and deprivation and what implications this has for the future direction and character of welfare politics.

The sociological imagination of rich and poor citizens

Overall, the general public tend to oppose excessive inequality and support a degree of redistribution as a matter of principle. However, differences in welfare attitudes are clearly observable between institutional regimes, ideological systems and socio-demographic groups. Drawing on analysis of the British Social Attitudes survey, this chapter begins by outlining how rich and poor citizens differ in terms of their attitudes towards welfare, inequality and social citizenship. It then turns to demonstrate how this attitudinal divergence is mediated by material position and the knowledge accumulated through lived experiences of inequality. The main body of the chapter pivots on a series of vignettes that are used as a heuristic to explore tacit and explicit intuitions about the structural determinants of agency and outcome. These vignettes were presented to those interviewed for this study to explore operational notions of justice, responsibility and fairness. The vignettes draw upon caricatures of individuals commonly (mis-) represented in policy discourse and the media: ‘the deserving workless poor’, ‘the undeserving workless poor’, ‘the deserving working poor’ and ‘the undeserving working rich’. The chapter demonstrates that affluence and deprivation engender distinct understandings, and explanations of social stratification that, in turn, affect attitudes towards welfare, rights and responsibilities.

Introduction

This introductory chapter begins by briefly outlining the regressive and exclusionary effects of recent political and policy developments in the UK. The implications of this are considered by pointing to the diverse and multi-dimensional inequalities emerging from welfare state retrenchment, or rather, recalibration. The chapter specifies the key themes, focus and remit of the book. This situates the book’s analysis and findings within existing academic, political and policy debates regarding; poverty and inequality; the changing relationship between social citizenship and inequality; and the current functions and limits of welfare and redistribution. In particular, the chapter outlines the relative merits of examining poverty alongside affluence in times of welfare austerity. Through a schematic consideration of the existing theoretical and empirical literature, the case is made for an explanatory account of the relationship between social citizenship, inequality and welfare. This account attends to the political agency of unequal citizens and the deliberative character of welfare politics. Details are then provided about the research design and methodological approach of the study upon which this book is based. Finally, the chapter closes by providing an overview of the structure and organisation of the book.

Lived experiences of poverty and prosperity in austerity Britain

This chapter explores how poor and rich citizens negotiate the institutions and ideals that have come to structure welfare and inequality. By examining the lived experiences of those marginalised and validated by the prevailing socio-political settlement, this chapter provides an account of the penury and prosperity that presently characterises embedded welfare austerity in the UK. Findings from in-depth qualitative interviews are considered here to explore how income, employment status and local area affect the everyday lived experiences of social citizenship. These dimensions of advantage and disadvantage are used to critically compare the outcomes, opportunities, constraints and experiences of the rich and poor. Taken together, the evidence suggests that deprivation and affluence are meaningful and potent in isolation. However, the relativity of these socio-material conditions is perhaps most meaningful for understanding the sense making of citizenship orientation. Citizens seem to evaluate the worth of their resources, orientate their experiences and authenticate their identity in relation to, and against, others. The chapter concludes by examining the material and symbolic significance of inequality and demonstrates that deprivation and affluence are not only a material deficit or accretion; they are also an expression of one’s citizenship status and position.

Unequal citizenship? The new social divisions of public welfare

To establish the extent of continuity and change, the first section of this chapter outlines the historical and contemporary context from which the prevailing citizenship configuration has emerged in the UK. The changing enactment and experience of social security can be broadly characterised as a ratcheted transition from a social democratic period of welfarism (1945-1979) to a post-Keynesian era of neoliberal citizenship (1979-present day). I then turn to consider how these developments are producing new social divisions in the design and receipt of public welfare. I argue that welfare austerity is producing an increasingly bifurcated system of social citizenship that has come to authenticate the status and reward the practices of some, to the exclusion and denigration of others. Drawing on secondary quantitative analysis, the distributional effects arising from this are considered for those at the bottom, middle and top of the income distribution. The remainder of the chapter describes two conditions that emerge from the shifting logic of welfare galvanised through public service reform and fiscal recalibration: the Validated Active Citizen and the Residual Contingent Citizen. These categories are outlined to understand how the variegated praxis of social citizenship shapes the identity and status of notionally equal citizens.