The cruel optimism of the welfare state and its bordering practices

Guest lecture by Synnøve Bendixsen, professor in Social Anthropology at University of Bergen.

This presentation discusses how the Norwegian welfare state, its bordering practices, and labor market regulations contribute to creating precarious working conditions and lives. The welfare state promises that everyone can live a good life if they contribute to the welfare state through work and taxes. Simultaneously, inclusion in the welfare state is based on meeting certain criteria (such as legal residence) and performing work recognized by the state as employment. This creates particular challenges for migrants, including EU migrants and refugees. We call this dynamic the cruel optimism of the welfare state.

The presentation will discuss how precarious working conditions are partly shaped by political measures and implementation, such as labor activation policies, workfare policy, the integration regime, and welfare state bordering, with consequences for people’s lives and trust in the welfare state.

On Synnøve Bendixsen

Synnøve Bendixsen is a professor in Social Anthropology at University of Bergen, where she is also the Dean of Social Sciences. She has published widely on migration, the welfare state, and temporality in and of crisis contexts.

Organizers

The event is organized in a collaboration between the research consortium Times in Crisis: The Temporalities of Europe in Polycrisis; Centre for Comparative Culture Studies, Dept. for Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies; and Centre for Advanced Migration Studies.

For questions contact Andreas Bandak.