Work as the primary ‘duty’ of the responsible citizen: a critique of this work-centric approach

Abstract

Focusing on the British case, this paper provides an analysis of the ways in which the responsibility to work is today characterised as the primary duty of the ‘good’ citizen. Following an exploration of how paid work is conceptualised, and the citizenship framework on which this conceptualisation rests, a brief review of relevant policy measures in this domain highlights continuity and change between the approaches of New Labour and the Coalition. This paper then explores the rhetorical devices and binary distinctions employed to uphold and sustain distinctions between the behaviour of workers and those reliant on welfare for all, or most, of contemporary their income. The valorisation of work is critiqued, with emphasis placed on the exclusionary citizenship consequences for those who do not engage in the formal labour market. A work-centric approach adopts a narrow and overly-restrictive understanding of both work and dependency, omitting analyses of inequalities amongst the working population, as well as issues of the deservingness and responsibilities of the rich. Inevitably, simplistic and unsustainable binary distinctions between ‘work’ and ‘dependency’ only serve to further exclude and demoralise those already on the margins of social exclusion.