TITLE:
The Story of Victimhood—Basic Income Recipients Positioning Street-Level Bureaucracies
AUTHORS:
Sari Mäki
KEYWORDS:
Basic Income; Street-Level Bureaucracy; Positioning Theory; Victimhood
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Applied Sociology,
Vol.3 No.1,
March
20,
2013
ABSTRACT: The article focuses on how people living on
basic income benefits position street-level bureaucrats in their speech. The
research material consists of 15 unstructured interviews gathered mainly in
Association for unemployed. Analysis is done in the context of positioning
theory. Participants always have moral positions in discussion and with these
positions they have different rights and duties to say certain things. Interviewees’ speech and especially the word choice
reflect on known story-line and interviewees’ position in it. There is always a new story-line for
each shift in interviewees taken or given position. Basic income recipients
position street-level bureaucrats as inadequate, disciplining and unpredictable.
I interpret that these given positions enable a shift of autonomy from
recipients to street-level bureaucrats. Hence the given positioning reflects
the story-line of victimhood.