Justifications of citizens’ subject positions in public debates on welfare

Abstract

Foucault's work has inspired studies examining how subject positions are constructed for citizens of the welfare state that encourage them to adopt the subject position of active and responsible people or consumers. Yet these studies are often criticised for analysing these subject positions as coherent constructions without considering how their construction varies from one situation to another. This paper develops the concept of subject position in relation to the theory of justification and the concept of modality in order to achieve a more sensitive and nuanced analysis of the politics of welfare in public debates. The theory of justification places greater weight on actors' competence in social situations. It helps to reveal how justifications and critiques of welfare policies are based on the skilful contextual combination of diverse normative bases. The concept of modality, in turn, makes it possible to elaborate how subject positions in justifications and critiques of welfare policies become associated with specific kinds of values. We demonstrate the approach by using public debates on children's day care in Finland. The analysis illustrates how subject positions are justified in relation to different kinds of worlds and made persuasive by connecting them to commonly desirable rights, responsibilities, competences or abilities.

Parenting Support Policy in Finland: Responsibility and Competence as Key Attributes of Good Parenting in Parenting Support Projects

“…The way in which the subject position of parents is associated with specific kinds of values can be traced by examining how parenting is valued through the application of pragmatic modalities (Törrönen, 2001: 321; Autto and Törrönen, 2017). As such, Sulkunen and Törrönen (1997b) have identified at least four different pragmatic modalities: obligations (responsibilities), desires (motivations), abilities (physical and material resources) and competence (knowledge-related resources).…”

“…Furthermore, I analyse responsibility and competence as dimensions of pragmatic modalities related to good parenthood (cf. Sulkunen and Törrönen, 1997a; Autto and Törrönen, 2017).…”

A spirit of urban capitalism: market cities, people cities, and cultural justifications

“…These critiques serve to contest the spirit of urban capitalism, and their orientation to that spirit underscores both the centrality of the spirit of urban capitalism as well as the differences in how the future of cities is projected. An implication of this is that justifications in a city will be heterogeneous, and though they primarily orient around a certain set of ideals, they never do so fully (Autto and Törrönen 2017;Holden 2017;. We further argue that residents of the city are more likely to be heterogeneous than elites, and, moreover, the relative homogeneity of elite justifications helps to sustain their status as powerful actors.…”

“…This thesis on economy and culture utilises a justifications-based model of culture and action that centers on the relation between structural forces and cultural meaning-making (Autto and Törrönen 2017;Blok and Meilvang 2015;Boltanski and Chiapello 2005;Boltanski and Thévenot 2006;Bridge 2014;Holden 2017;. The work of Luc Boltanski on justifications proposes "to take seriously the imperative to justify that underlies the possibility of coordinating human behavior, and to examine the constraints that weigh on agreement concerning a common good" (Boltanski and Thévenot 2006: 37).…”

Actors and justifications in media debates on Arctic climate change in Finland and Canada: A network approach

“…Their use, therefore, varies across cultural contexts (e.g. Frederiksen, 2018;Lehtonen and Liukko, 2010;Luhtakallio, 2012;Thévenot et al, 2000;Autto and Törrönen, 2016). For example, market justifications are more important and linked to other justifications in the United States of America (USA), whereas in France, market justifications are often criticized and civic justifications are most commonly used (Lamont and Thévenot, 2000;Thévenot et al, 2000;Ylä-Anttila and Kukkonen, 2014).…”