The UK Citizens Advice service and the plurality of actors and practices that shape “legal consciousness”

Kirwan, Samuel

doi:10.1080/07329113.2016.1235770

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…We learned first‐hand how withdrawals of and conditionalities attached to state funding have made advice charities ever more essential (see McDermont ); how they force discrete agencies of the state into dialogue with one another, often correcting mistakes they make; how they help people challenge and reverse decisions made by the private companies to which things like means‐testing and evaluating disability have been outsourced. Many advisers, not uniformly fitting the image of the ‘twin‐set and pearls’ middle‐class volunteer (Treloar , cited in Kirwan ), hail from abroad, as do many of their clients. While those whose status is not yet regularised are referred to other offices, those with permanent residence, like locals, are eligible for both benefits and advice.…”

Section: The Advice Encounter As Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Sorting out income’: transnational householding and austerity Britain

James

Kirwan

2019

Soc Anthropol

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The reliance of welfare recipients on the state is classically demonised as a relation of dependency: one that foments passivity on the part of claimants. Critical voices in austerity Britain have drawn attention to government efforts to reconfigure that relationship, by 'reforming' welfare, remaking the grantee as a repaying loan-taker and turning dependents into responsible, autonomous citizens. This paper, based on research in the debt advice sector in England, shows that dependency may involve unexpected directionalities of reliance. (Those who appear as state dependents in one register can be those depended upon in another.) It focuses in particular on encounters with migrants, describing what the process of 'transnational householding' tells us about dependency. It discusses the relations between advisers and clients, showing how advice charities create a parallel system of care and support. A punitive and debt-based welfare system means that many clients owe money to the state as well as to commercial creditors. Austerity and welfare reform are rendering individuals' obligations to family members and others fragile and insecure. But given advisers' intervention between a hostile bureaucracy and debtors, the experience of reckoning, owing money and settling accounts can end up as something more akin to householding than to controlling discipline.

show abstract

Section: The Advice Encounter As Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Sorting out income’: transnational householding and austerity Britain

James

Kirwan

2019

Soc Anthropol

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There appears, then, a contradiction between the debt advice sector's mission to help those ill-served by current economic arrangements and its tendency to accept the various marketising reforms described above. Advisers often critique policies that impact on debtors collectively (Kirwan 2018). Yet the promotion at MALG of 'winwin solutions' implies a belief that liberal financial governance benefits everyone.…”

Section: Financialising Social Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Debt advice is the focus of a significant and growing body of research (Kempson 1995;Goriely 1996;James 2014;Kirwan 2016;Kirwan 2018). However, so far its significance as a neoliberal form of welfare is not well understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Financialised Welfare and Its Vulnerabilities: Advice, Consumer Credit, and Church-Based Charity in the UK

Davey¹

2020

Ethnos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Debt advice, as a neoliberal variant of social welfare in the UK, highlights the introduction and repercussions of approaches to welfare that encourage, and/or rely on, financial speculation. Since the 1990s, senior managers in the debt advice sector have anticipated funding cuts by advocating cooperation with the financial industry, implying a financialised concept of social welfare that valorises the redistribution of opportunities to speculate, rather than that of wealth. Yet following cuts, 'front-line' debt advisers complain they are unable to provide the required level of care and compassion, leading to an increase in church-based, volunteer-run advice, aimed at the poorest and most vulnerable. Rather than some predetermined political modality, the ethical concepts of welfare that caught on, and the moral qualities consequently ascribed to its beneficiaries, emerged at the interface of managers' assessments of the viability of particular funding models with the political-economic conditions in which those models were implemented.

show abstract

“…Tiesību normu jēgas izskaidrošana arī ir viens no tiesiskas valsts pienākumiem, kuru bieži pilda praktizējošie juristi -konsultāciju darbs parasti iekļauj arī skaidrošanu, kuras mērķis ir uzlabot klienta izpratni un tiesisko apziņu [14]. Tāpat arī televīzijas šovimākslīgi konstruētas un inscenētas tiesas prāvas -pilda ne tikai izklaidējošo, bet arī daļēji vispārizglītojošo funkciju.…”

Section: Tiesisko Apziņu Ietekmējošie Faktoriunclassified

Tiesiskā apziņa un tiesiskais nihilisms

Kriviņš

2020

SOCRATES

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Tiesiskās apziņas un tiesiskā nihilisma problēmjautājumi ir savstarpēji saistīti un visnotaļ aktuāli gan pasaules, gan arī Latvijas Republikas tiesiskajā telpā. Pētījums “Tiesiskā apziņa un tiesiskais nihilisms” ir veltīts šo fenomenu analīzei. Tiesiskā apziņa ne tikai ļauj izzināt, bet arī nodrošina parādību, lietu un pieredzes apkopošanu, novērtēšanu un reproducēšanu, kas neapšaubāmi ietekmē subjekta rīcību – indivīdam ir iespēja koriģēt savus mērķus atbilstoši tiesiskajai situācijai. Tomēr šo īpašību ievērojami var ietekmēt vispārpieņemto morāles normu un tikumisko vērtību noliegums, negatīva attieksme pret rakstītām un nerakstītām tiesību normām. Veicot pētījumu, uzmanība tika pievērsta ne tikai tiesiskās apziņas līmeņa izzināmības metodoloģijai, bet arī citiem būtiskiem momentiem, piemēram, likumu uztverei sabiedrībā, juridiskajai kultūrai, tiesiskajam nihilismam, tiesībpārkāpuma un noziedzīgā nodarījuma savstarpējai saiknei un nošķirtībai u. tml. Pētījuma rezultātā tika secināts, ka apziņas paradigmas un tiesiskās apziņas paradigmas (laiks, telpa, cilvēks) ir savstarpēji cieši saistītas. Lai tiesiskā nihilisma iespējamie pretstati – ideālisms, reālisms, konformisms – kļūtu par cilvēka izvēles motīvu, ir nepieciešams kontekstualizēt tiesiskuma problēmu kā ideju, turklāt projicēt šo ideju uz indivīda un sabiedrības iekšējiem psiholoģiskajiem uzstādījumiem. Vienlaikus jāņem vērā, ka nihilisms per se (arī eksistenciālais nihilisms un tiesiskais nihilisms) akcentē cilvēka sociālo nestabilitāti. Kultūrapziņu sadursme, mūsdienīgie realitātes uztveres un realitātes noliegšanas procesi ļauj secināt, ka tiesiskā nihilisma izpausmes pauž nevis tiesiskās apziņas deformēšanu, bet gan tiesiskās apziņas neizbēgamo evolūciju. Šo apsvērumu dēļ tiesiskā nihilisma mazināšanas iespējas saistās ne tik daudz ar ideoloģiju, kā ar tiesiskuma brīvprātīgu akceptēšanu, kuru ietekmē sociālā, ekonomiskā un tehniskā realitāte, sabiedriskās un kultūras dzīves situatīvā saistība. The purpose of this research is to identify peculiarities of legal consciousness and Legal nihilism. It is an active research field attracting growing numbers of scholars worldwide. In order to have a clear understanding of the practical and legal implications of the topic, a more than usually detailed summary of the extensive and complicated findings is needed. The author of the paper explorese relevance of self-esteem, happiness and fear, truth and justice, responsibility, and self-control in the context of these issues separately. It can be assumed that legal consciousness in its deepest beginnings is the instinctive will of justice. Legal consciousness is always formed on the basis of subjective attitude; therefore, a lasting, self-affirming legal consciousness can be formed only as a result of neutral analysis of the surrounding reality. Repressive punishment, threats and propaganda cannot undermine legal nihilism. On the contrary, by abandoning the principle of state supremacy and excessive bureaucracy, people should be able to respect state structures and trust the state on voluntary basis. Trust is the basis of legitimacy, but trust in state power arises only when state power is competent, reasonable, effective and fair. Sense of injustice promotes legal nihilism. The problem of legal consciousness and legal nihilism is closely related to the subject’s inner sense of justice, which is constantly evolving within the family and at school, in the workplace and in general public, at the micro level and in participatory processes. It is important that the individual’s own perceptions and experiences show that self-control and legal awareness are integral parts of a correct, good and modern lifestyle.

show abstract

The UK Citizens Advice service and the plurality of actors and practices that shape “legal consciousness”

Cited by 12 publications

References 25 publications

‘Sorting out income’: transnational householding and austerity Britain

‘Sorting out income’: transnational householding and austerity Britain

Financialised Welfare and Its Vulnerabilities: Advice, Consumer Credit, and Church-Based Charity in the UK

Tiesiskā apziņa un tiesiskais nihilisms

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About