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Membership Without Social Citizenship? Deservingness & Redistribution As Grounds for Equality

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Membership Without Social Citizenship? Deservingness & Redistribution As Grounds for Equality Membership without Social Citizenship? Deservingness & Redistribution as Grounds for Equality Irene Bloemraad, Will Kymlicka, Michèle Lamont & Leanne S. Son Hing Abstract: Western societies have experienced a broadening of inclusive membership, whether we consider legal, interpersonal, or cultural membership. Concurrently, we have witnessed increased tensions around social citizenship, notably harsher judgments or boundaries over who “deserves” public assistance. Some have argued these phenomena are linked, with expanded, more diverse membership corroding solidarity and redistribution. We maintain that such a conclusion is premature and, especially, unsatisfactory: it fails to detail the processes–at multiple levels of analysis–behind tensions over membership and social citizenship. This essay draws on normative political theory, social psychology, cultural sociology, and political studies to build a layered explanatory framework that highlights the importance of individual feelings of group identity and threat for people’s beliefs and actions; the significance of broader cultural repertoires and notions of national solidarity as a source and product of framing contests; and the diverse ways elites, power, and institutions affect notions of membership and deservingness. irene bloemraad is Profes- This essay explores processes by which a broad- sor of Sociology at the University ening of legal, social, and cultural membership in of California, Berkeley. Western societies appears to be accompanied by a will kymlicka is the Canada reduction in the social rights of citizenship, in part Research Chair in Political Phi- due to harsher judgments concerning the deserv- losophy at Queen’s University. ingness of low-income populations. As more di- michÈle lamont is Professor verse groups are extended formal national mem- of Sociology at Harvard Univer- bership, fewer individuals appear deserving of so- sity. cial rights, such as welfare redistribution. Why is leanne s. son hing is Asso- this the case? Some explain this decline in solidar- ciate Professor in the Department ity as a simple, even mechanical response to grow- of Psychology at the University ing diversity. We offer alternative approaches to un- of Guelph. derstanding these tensions and consider pathways (Complete author biographies appear for promoting inclusive membership and broad so- at the end of the essay.) cial rights. We do so by drawing on the analytical © 2019 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license doi:10.1162/DAED_a_01751 73 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/daed_a_01751 by guest on 28 September 2021 Membership tools of four distinct fields that are rare- intergroup attitudes, school textbooks, without Social ly in dialogue, proposing that positive so- popular media, and public representa- Citizenship? cial change may emerge from 1) solidar- tions of the nation). By all three measures, ity, explored by normative political the- people previously thought to be “others” orists; 2) group identity and distributive –racial, sexual, and religious minorities justice, a focus for social psychologists; and immigrants–are more likely today to 3) boundary-drawing and destigmatiza- have access to legal citizenship, to marry tion, as analyzed by cultural sociologists; someone from the majority group, and to and 4) contestation and social move- be perceived as valuable and as belonging ments, studied by political sociologists to the nation than in the 1950s. and political scientists. Sociologist T. H. In contrast, we see increased tensions Marshall famously distinguished three around social citizenship over this pe- dimensions of citizenship–civic, politi- riod. Contestation plays out in differ- cal, and social–with corresponding types ent ways. In some societies, increasing- of formal rights pertaining to legal inclu- ly harsh judgments about who deserves sion, political participation, and econom- public help distinguish the “deserving” ic redistribution (social rights), respec- poor from others. According to this logic, tively.1 He argued that modern societies one must demonstrate cultural member- are characterized by a progressive exten- ship or moral blamelessness to access re- sion of these rights to a larger number of sources, rather than receive public assis- individuals. Marshall predicted that this tance as a formal right extended to any- extension would go hand in hand with one in the national community. Other greater economic integration of all citi- societies appear to embrace welfare chau- zens, and that the decades bookending vinism: the historical beneficiaries of re- World War II would see “the subordina- distribution continue to enjoy generous tion of market price to social justice” by assistance, but newer groups, such as im- “recognizing in principle the right of the migrants, are excluded. In still other soci- citizen to a minimum standard of civi- eties, the provision of social benefits has lized living.”2 become decentralized, which accompa- Contrary to Marshall’s expectations, nies a decline in a sense of mutual obliga- we provide some evidence that the broad- tion toward low-income groups. ening of legal, interpersonal, or even cul- What processes of social change lie be- tural membership has not gone uniform- hind these tensions, and what factors may ly hand in hand with a broadening of the mitigate them? One prominent analy- distribution of welfare resources, in part sis links expanded membership but re- due to a rigidification of moral boundar- stricted social citizenship to demograph- ies based on perceptions of deservingness. ic diversity: it is posited as corrosive for On the side of broadened inclusion, we social capital, redistribution, and/or sol- consider membership in three analytical- idarity.3 We find such a conclusion pre- ly distinct ways: legal membership (as mature, given very mixed evidence.4 defined by citizenship law or formal rules Moreover, such an answer is analytically about who has access to rights); social or unsatisfactory. It does not get at the pos- interpersonal membership (referring to sible processes behind the tensions over social distance via networks of friendship membership and social citizenship, ten- and romantic relationships); and cultur- sions that we believe must be captured by al membership (who is viewed as a valu- a multilevel analysis. We begin to do this able member of society, as expressed in by combining insights about solidarity, 74 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/daed_a_01751 by guest on 28 September 2021 group identity, destigmatization, and so- national-level dynamics, tracking deserv- Bloemraad, cial movements that draw on normative ingness judgments as manifest in mem- Kymlicka, Lamont & political theory, social psychology, cul- bership in national welfare states. In this Son Hing tural sociology, and political sociology/ view, prospects for a more equal society political science. depend on national-level inclusion. In oth- In aiming to bridge levels of analysis, er accounts, boundary-drawing emerges we view these insights as complementary, from dynamic psychological processes re- each highlighting a dimension of inequal- sponsive to localized situational cues or to ity. The macrolevel concerns formal law the contingencies of particular activities, and public policy that determine mem- workplaces, social networks, and politi- bership, whether through legal rights or cal coalitions; and appeals to local cultur- bureaucratic rules governing access to ed- al scripts or, alternatively, to cultural rep- ucation, social assistance, medical care, ertoires that transcend the “nation” (such and so forth. The microlevel captures on- as human rights). Another view focuses the-ground experiences of membership instead on power and political contesta- based on interpersonal interactions and tion, with the prospects for a more equal intersubjective meaning-making. The society depending in part on the outcome mesolevel is conceptualized as scripts of such struggles. In what follows, we lay of worth, available cultural repertoires, out membership and social citizenship and practices institutionalized by orga- tensions, grapple with a set of multilevel, nizations.5 Mesolevel institutions from multidisciplinary explanatory approach- schools to workplaces establish rules, es, and consider future prospects. procedures, and norms that generate and communicate membership, and mediate One of the striking successes of the last the relationship between individuals and half-century is the struggle against ex- the state.6 Each level interacts and exer- clusionary definitions of national mem- cises reciprocal influence. bership. This is reflected in the trajecto- The literatures on which we draw share ries of both legal and sociocultural inclu- an emphasis on boundary-drawing, a pro- sion across Western democracies, which cess by which we categorize others as show a rejection of the idea that national worthy, valuable, or legitimate along di- membership is based on or limited to an mensions of morality and deservingness. ascribed ethnic background. Such symbolic boundaries, ones that dis- With respect to legal membership, the tinguish insiders and outsiders, can be ac- formal rules for acquiring citizenship or companied by reinforcing consequen- nationality have become more open.9 A tial social boundaries, as
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