糖心Vlog

Professor Lydia Morris, from the Department of Sociology, has received an award for her book, The Moral Economy of Welfare and Migration: Reconfiguring Rights in Austerity Britain.

She was joint winner of this year鈥檚 , from the (SPA) for her book鈥檚 contribution to the understanding of social policy.

On winning the award, Professor Morris said: 鈥淚 am pleased this research on a policy area that causes misery for so many has been recognised by the Social Policy Association. I am grateful for the support of the Leverhulme Trust and the 糖心Vlog, which allowed me to complete the research and produce the book.鈥�

The book examines the changes to both welfare and migration in Britain, under the coalition government of 2010 鈥� 2015 and its Conservative successors, showing how similar devices of deterrence and control operate in both fields.

Professor Morris takes a sociological approach on these topics by exploring the idea of a moral economy that shapes discourse and policy under the guise of 鈥榝airness鈥� and 鈥榤orality鈥� but with discriminatory effects that at times have been in breach of human rights guarantees.

The book shifts the idea of 鈥榤oral economy鈥� from its original focus on food riots in 18th century England to a more contemporary application that refers not to protest from 鈥榖elow鈥�, but rather to discourse imposed from 鈥榓bove鈥� in a strategic reshaping of key features of socio-economic life.

This framework is applied to the analysis of discourse and policy on domestic welfare and migration by tracing the translation of abstract concepts into substantive content. Hence, we find 鈥榤orality鈥� construed as 鈥榝airness鈥� and 鈥榬esponsibility鈥� set against 鈥榙ependency鈥� and 鈥榓buse鈥�, alongside a view of welfare and migration as 鈥榯wo sides of the same coin鈥�. Flying in the face of empirical evidence, migrants and welfare recipients are thus mutually opposed in a zero-sum game.

The research was funded by a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust and The Moral Economy of Welfare and Migration: Reconfiguring Rights in Austerity Britain was (2021).