‘Let them eat resilience’: The genealogy of a vocabulary, and why it matters for public health
Nothing about the title of this post is original. The main title imitates that of an essay by historical sociologist Margaret Somers called ‘Let them eat social capital’, which appeared in 2005. The subtitle and the idea of a genealogy of concepts that situates them in a larger political context draws on an essay by Nancy Fraser and Linda Gordoncalled ‘A Genealogy of Dependency’, published in 1994. That essay dealt with a word that became current in debates leading up to US social policy changes signed into law in 1996 by then-President Clinton. Those so-called reforms ended a decades-old guarantee of at least minimal income support to households with dependent children that was already among the least generous in the high-income world. In many cases, the destructive effects, in particular those of draconian and arbitrary ‘sanctioning’ regimes, were uncannily similar to those that followed more recent changes to benefits eligibility in the UK. I cannot achieve the depth or sophistication of Somers’ or Fraser and Gordon’s analyses. But I do hope to stimulate critical thought about both the underlying, often unexamined assumptions of the public health vocabulary, and about the policy implications./.../
No comments:
Post a Comment