Stereotypes, conditions, and binaries: analysing processes of social disqualification towards children and parents living in precarity

In contemporary European welfare states, poverty reduction strategies can currently be characterized as individualistic rather than solidaristic, focusing on welfare recipients’ merit rather than securing their rights. Based on the findings of a recent research project in Belgium, we explore how social workers develop strategies to combat child poverty in local municipalities. Inspired by the work of the critical French scholars Robert Castel and Serge Paugam, our qualitative analysis reveals how social workers construct stereotypes, conditions and binaries between ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor in their everyday practice. Our results elucidate how social workers strengthen processes of social disqualification when they support children and sanction parents in poverty situations. Interestingly, our analysis also shows how social work takes a critical stance in relation to the recent shifts in the normative value orientation of social policy and social work.