Theorizing notions of the participation of people in poverty in social policymaking: Policing, politics and subjectification

Abstract

Since the 1990s, a paradigm of participation has gained prominence and become a dominant policy rhetoric in anti-poverty policymaking in Europe, embracing the key idea that people in poverty should participate as equal citizens in political decision-making processes. Based on a historical case study of the production process of a Belgian white paper, the General Report on Poverty (1994), we investigate who participated in the GRP production process, and whether the underlying participatory and democratic mechanisms produced a shift in power and might have led to a more socially just and equal society. We rely on a central set of ideas of the French philosopher Jacques Rancière to theorize different notions of participation, and tease out whether the processing of equality had the capacity to move from policing towards politics through subjectification. Our research study demonstrates how social change and a reconfiguration of the democratic order can appear as a moment of democracy, yet inevitably leads to a new police.

The policy engagement of social workers: a research overview

“…The origin of this approach was the formulation of the general report on poverty in Belgium between 1992 and 1995. A study of this process shows how it brought together people living in poverty with SWs and other professionals in the formulation of policies to address poverty (Degerickx et al, 2020).…”