Policy Press

Hidden Voices

Lived Experiences in the Irish Welfare Space

By Joe Whelan

Published

Nov 14, 2023

Page count

198 pages

Browse the series

Key Issues in Social Justice

ISBN

978-1447360933

Dimensions

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

May 6, 2022

Page count

198 pages

Browse the series

Key Issues in Social Justice

ISBN

978-1447360926

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

May 6, 2022

Page count

198 pages

Browse the series

Key Issues in Social Justice

ISBN

978-1447360940

Dimensions

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

May 6, 2022

Page count

198 pages

Browse the series

Key Issues in Social Justice

ISBN

978-1447360940

Dimensions

Imprint

Policy Press
Hidden Voices

Underpinned by the idea of the right to a ‘basic minimum’, welfare states are a major feature of many societies. However, the lived experiences of persons seeking and receiving welfare payments can often be overlooked.

This book seeks to remedy this omission by honouring lived experience as valuable, insightful and necessary. It draws on qualitative interviews with 19 people receiving various working age welfare payments in Ireland to explore stigma, social reciprocity and the notions of the deserving and undeserving poor, and to analyse welfare conditionality in the Irish context.

Breaking new ground, this book offers original research findings which contest and inform policy both within Ireland and beyond.

Joe Whelan is Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin.

Foreword by Fred Powell

Introduction

1. Setting the Stage: The Development of the Irish Welfare State and its Place in the World of Welfare

2. Welfare, Marginality and Social Liminality: Life in the Welfare ‘Space’

3. The Effect of the Work Ethic

4. Welfare Conditionality

5. Maintaining Compliance and Engaging in Impression Management

6. Deservingness: Othering, Self-Justification and the Norm of Reciprocity

7. Welfare is 'Bad' Bringing It All Together

8. COVID-19: Policy Responses and Lived Experiences

Conclusion