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4 Powerful encounters as seen from an interactionist perspective Introduction The sociological literature on the categorisation of citizens in welfare contexts is part of a large field of study. Much of this research is inspired by a symbolic interactionist perspective and examines the dialectical relationship between the actions of individuals and their institutional and organisational contexts.1 The focus of this work is how individuals respond to the social conditions of which they are part (Hall 1997). However, some scholars argue that public encounters
Since the 1990s, European welfare states have undergone substantial changes regarding their objectives, areas of intervention and instruments of use. There has been an increasing move towards the prioritisation of the involvement of citizens and the participation of civil society. This book focuses on the altered (powerful) conditions for encounters between citizens and welfare workers. It uses the concept of soft power, which, inter alia, allows for the investigations of the ways in which individuals manipulate each other in an effort to achieve their desired goals. The first part of the book discusses extracts from state-of-the-art research on professions and expertise, and the perception of power that guides the analyses. It also discusses the overall theoretical positioning when analysing encounters between welfare workers and citizens as co-productive and interactionist. The second part presents analyses to show how a bureaucratic context affects the encounter between administrators and clients, and how a market context affects the encounter between service providers and consumers/customers. The analysis of how a psychology-inspired context affects the encounter between coaches and coaches is also provided. All three contexts are to be perceived as Weberian ideal types, in other words, theoretical constructs based on observations of the real world. The concluding part of the book emphasises on the role of the principles of the bureaucracy, the norms from psychology, and the values of the market in the welfare encounter. Key points of the book are summarised in the conclusion.
educational backgrounds but who nevertheless do similar work. The reason for not emphasising the educational background or training of staff members who encounter citizens also relates to the hypothesis that educational background and training are less important to the analysis and understanding of citizens’ encounters with the welfare state. As this book will investigate, it may rather be the principles of the bureaucracy, values of the market and norms from psychology which one must highlight and foreground when analysing the powerful encounter between citizens and
to (the powerful) encounter between welfare workers and citizens are included. Dreyfus and Dreyfus (2005: 779) employ a five-stage model of competence or skill – novice, advanced beginner, competence, proficiency and expert – of which the fifth and highest stage is that of expertise. By focusing particularly on accident prevention and medical expertise, Dreyfus and Dreyfus examine to what extent expertise may be captured in rule-based expert systems. They argue that given the historical development of expertise, scholars of today ought to take ‘a fresh look’ at the
focused. Soft power is bound to actors such as states, countries and intergovernmental organisations or – in relation to the topic of this book – welfare workers, citizens and welfare organisations and their abilities to set agendas and convince others to cooperate. Powerful encounters At its core, power has to do with how individuals, alone or collectively, ‘attempt to achieve their objectives and to assist or obstruct others in the achievement of theirs’ (Jenkins 2013: 140). In doing so, individuals then deploy different resources meaningful to the contexts in which
he mingled with others apparently as an equal, the official image of the Duce was of one type. ‘The cinematic Mussolini has one face only: he is portrayed solely as the charismatic figure of the great public rallies’, Ernesto G. Laura asserts.12 The Duce’s pilgrimages throughout the piazzas of the peninsula had a counterpart in the pilgrimages that many Italians made to Rome to see Piazza Venezia, where his office was located, and the famous balcony from which he made many important pronouncements. It was the powerful encounters between leader and crowd that took
institutionalised form of domination by the Hispanic community over indigenous groups. Analysing discourses as strategies thus aims to contextualise histories of powerful encounters between people. Because it is imbued with authority and power, the discursive strategy of the American State allows opposite claims to be in harmony: on the one hand, implementing measures that discriminate against the Muslim population, and on the other, viewing that minority as a ‘friend’. Proclaiming that the Muslim population should be treated with respect and that Islam has a peaceful essence
rhetorically powerful encounter between brother and sister. For the first time they can give free rein to their illicit passions, acknowledging their love and struggling with its moral implications. Arbaces speaks in an aside, wanting ‘To quench these rising flames that harbor here’ (4.4.8). The ‘rising flames’ of passion engulf them both. Panthea does not recoil when Arbaces says: ‘I