Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-22dnz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T06:19:24.724Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Talking Active Citizenship: Framing Welfare State Reform in England and the Netherlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2013

Imrat Verhoeven  and
Evelien Tonkens
Imrat Verhoeven
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam E-mail: i.verhoeven@uva.nl
Evelien Tonkens
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Amsterdam E-mail: e.h.tonkens@uva.nl
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article reviews how activation policies frame citizens as individual welfare agents. The analysis focuses on the framing of feeling rules employed by governments that encourage active citizenship, in this instance in the Netherlands and England. In England, encouraging voluntarism is central to the Big Society agenda; in the Netherlands, it is at the heart of the 2007 Social Support Act and more recent ideas on citizenship. Governments cannot compel their citizens to volunteer their time; they can, however, try to seduce people by playing on their emotions. Based on an analysis of thirty-nine policy documents and political speeches, we find that English politicians employ ‘empowerment talk’ calculated to trigger positive feelings about being active citizens, while Dutch politicians employ ‘responsibility talk’ conveying negative feelings about failure to participate more actively in society. Responsibility talk runs the risk that citizens respond with counter-responsibility claims, whereas empowerment talk can fail to incite sufficient enthousiasm among citizens.

Type
Themed Section on Welfare State Reform, Recognition and Emotional Labour
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , July 2013 , pp. 415 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acheson, N. (2001) ‘Service delivery and civic engagement: disability organizations in Northern Ireland’, Voluntas, 12, 3, 279–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alcock, P. (2011) ‘Voluntary action, New Labour and the “third sector”’, in Hilton, M. and McKay, J. (eds.), The Ages of Voluntarism: How We Got to the Big Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Alexander, J. C. (2006) ‘Cultural pragmatics: social performance between ritual and strategy’, in Alexander, J. C., Giesen, B. and Mast, J. L. (eds.), Social Performance: Symbolic Action, Cultural Pragmatics, and Ritual, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 29–90.Google Scholar
Benford, R. D. and Snow, D. A. (2000) ‘Framing processes and social movements: an overview and assessment’, Annual Review of Sociology, 26: 611–39.Google Scholar
Bloom, R. and Kilgore, D. (2003) ‘The volunteer citizen after welfare reform in the United States: an ethnographic study of volunteerism in action’, Voluntas, 14, 4, 431–53.Google Scholar
Borgi, V. and Van Berkel, R. (2007) ‘Individualised service provision in an era of activation and new governance’, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 27, 9/10, 413–24.Google Scholar
Broër, C. and Duyvendak, J. W. (2009) ‘Discursive opportunities, feeling rules, and the rise of protests against aircraft noise’, Mobilization, 14, 3, 405–25.Google Scholar
Bruszt, L. and Vedres, B. (2008) ‘The politics of civic combinations’, Voluntas, 19, 2, 140–60.Google Scholar
Cabinet Office (2010a) The Coalition: Our Program for Government, London: Cabinet Office.Google Scholar
Cabinet Office (2010b) Giving, Green paper, London: Cabinet Office.Google Scholar
Cameron, D. (2010) Speeches at the launch of the Big Society Program, 18 May, http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/pm-and-deputy-pms-speeches-at-big-society-launch/ (accessed 11.06.2012).Google Scholar
Cameron, D. (2011) Speech on Big Society, 14 February, http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/pms-speech-on-big-society/ (accessed 11.06.2012).Google Scholar
Civil Exchange (2012) ‘The Big Society audit 2012’, http://www.civilexchange.org.uk/the-big-society-audit (accessed 31.8.2012).Google Scholar
Corbett, S. and Walker, A. (2012) ‘The Big Society: back to the future’, The Political Quarterly, 83, 3, 487–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Klerk, M., Gilsing, R. and Timmermans, J. (2010) Op weg met de Wmo: Evaluatie van de Wet maatschappelijke ondersteuning 2007–2009, The Hague: Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau.Google Scholar
Dekker, P. and Den Ridder, J. (2011) Continu onderzoek burgerperspectieven 2011, The Hague: Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau.Google Scholar
Department for Communities and Local Government (2010) Decentralisation and the Localism Bill: An Essential Guide, London: Department for Communities and Local Government.Google Scholar
Eliasoph, N. (2011) Making Volunteers: Civic Life after Welfare's End, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Fuller, S., Kershaw, P. and Pulkingham, J. (2008) ‘Constructing “active citizenship”: single mothers, welfare, and the logics of voluntarism’, Citizenship Studies, 12, 2, 157–76.Google Scholar
Gross, K. and D'Ambrosio, L. (2004) ‘Framing emotional response’, Political Psychology, 25, 1, 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hochschild, A. (2003) The Commercialisation of Intimate Life: Notes from Home and Work, Berkeley, CA and London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ilcan, S. and Basok, T. (2004) ‘Community government: voluntary agencies, social justice, and the responsibilization of citizens’, Citizenship Studies, 8, 2, 129–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kisby, B. (2010) ‘The Big Society: power to the people?’, The Political Quarterly, 81, 4, 484–91.Google Scholar
Lindsay, I. (2001) ‘The voluntary sector’, in Crick, B. (ed.), Citizens: Toward a Citizenship Culture, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 115–22.Google Scholar
Lundström, T. (1996) ‘The state and voluntary social work in Sweden’, Voluntas, 7, 2, 123–46.Google Scholar
Marinetto, M. (2003) ‘Who wants to be an active citizen? The politics and practices of community involvement’, Sociology, 37, 1, 103–20.Google Scholar
Maude, F. (2010) ‘Leading your charity through a time of change’, speech, Central Hall Westminster, 9 June, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/414453/charities-through-change.pdf (accessed18.4.2012).Google Scholar
Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken (2011) Integratie, binding en burgerschap, Den Haag: Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken.Google Scholar
Muehlebach, A. (2012) The Moral Neoliberal: Welfare and Citizenship in Italy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, J. and Clarke, J. (2009) Publics, Politics and Power: Remaking the Public in Public Services, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Newman, J. and Tonkens, E. (eds.) (2011) Participation, Responsibility and Choice: Summoning the Active Citizen in Western European Welfare States, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Office for Civil Society (2010) Building a Stronger Civil Society, London: Office for Civil Society.Google Scholar
Ostrom, E. (2000) ‘Crowding out Citizenship’, Scandinavian Political Studies, 23, 1, 3–16.Google Scholar
Perry six., , Fletcher-Morgan, C. and Leyland, K. (2010) ‘Making people more responsible: the Blair governments’ programme for changing citizens’ behaviour’, Political Studies, 58, 3, 427–9.Google Scholar
Rose, N. (2006) ‘Governing “advanced” liberal democracies’, in Sharma, A. and Gupta, A. (eds.), The Anthropology of the State, London: Blackwell, pp. 144–62.Google Scholar
Snow, D. A. (2004) ‘Framing processes, ideology, and discursive fields’, in Snow, D. A., Soule, S. A. and Kriesi, H., The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, Malden: Blackwell, pp. 380–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spies, L. (2012) Speech Conferentie ‘Beter werken in het openbaar bestuur’, 18 January, http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/regering/het-kabinet/bewindspersonen/liesbeth-spies/toespraken/ (accessed 10.8.2012).Google Scholar
Tonkens, E. (2011) ‘The embrace of responsibility: citizenship and the governance of social care in the Netherlands’, in Newman, J. and Tonkens, E. (eds.), Participation, Responsibility and Choice: Summoning the Active Citizen in Western Welfare States, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 45–66.Google Scholar
Tonkens, E. (2012) ‘Working with Arlie Hochschild: connecting feelings to social change’, Social Politics, 19, 2, 194–218.Google Scholar
Tweede, Kamer (2003–04) Contourennota Wmo, vergaderjaar 2003–2004, 29538, nr. 1.Google Scholar
Tweede, Kamer (2004–05) Wetsvoorstel Wet maatschappelijke ondersteuning, vergaderjaar 2004–2005, 30131, nr. 4.Google Scholar
Verhoeven, I. and Ham, M. (2010) ‘Inleiding: De overheid op zoek naar brave burgers’, in Verhoeven, I. and Ham, M. (eds.), Brave burgers gezocht: De grenzen van de Activerende Overheid, Amsterdam: Van Gennep, pp. 9–19.Google Scholar