Talking Policy by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367719531
Google: yoUvzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2021-03-31T03:51:37+00:00

In a recent intervention into debates about the American ‘welfare state’, Richard Sennett (2003) argues that too often the objects of state intervention are denied respect. He observes the ways ‘they’ are ‘infantilized’ and rendered dependent and not worthy of respect:

Lack of respect, though less aggressive than an outright insult can take an equally wounding form. [When respect is not forthcoming] no insult is offered another person but neither is recognition extended: he or she is not seen—as a full human being whose presence matters. When a society treats the mass of people in this way, singling out only a few for recognition it creates a scarcity of respect … Like many famines, this scarcity is man-made [sic]; unlike food, respect costs nothing. Why then should it be in short supply? (2003: 49)

What is at stake is suggested in Sennett’s observation about the difference between the private valuing of dependence and its public shaming:

Imagine a lover who declares, ‘Don’t worry about me I can take care of myself, I will never be a burden to you’. We should show such a lover to the door: this non-needy creature could never take our needs seriously. In private life dependence ties people together. A child who could not depend on adults for guidance would be a profoundly damaged human being, unable to learn, deeply insecure. As adults if we avoided people sicker, weaker, older than ourselves who needed help we would at best have a circle of acquaintances, not friends. In the public realm however, dependence appears shameful. At a Labour Party conference recently, the British Prime Minister [Blair] declared that ‘the new welfare state must encourage work, not dependency’. (2003: 50–1)

Sennett is clear in saying that we no longer need a ‘welfare state’ reliant on altruism and compassion—attitudes he rightly sees as wounding, even destructive to that capacity for respect. What Sennett is calling for is a new politics of respect:

Rather than an equality of understanding, autonomy means accepting in others what one does not understand about them. In so doing the fact of their autonomy is treated as equal to your own. The grant of autonomy dignifies the weak or the outsider; to make this grant to others in turn strengthens one’s own character. (2003: 52)

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.