Edmiston, D orcid.org/0000-0001-8715-654X (2018) The Poor ‘Sociological Imagination’ of the Rich: Explaining Attitudinal Divergence towards Welfare, Inequality and Redistribution. Social Policy & Administration, 52 (5). pp. 983-997. ISSN 0144-5596
Abstract
Quantitative research has tended to explain attitudinal divergence towards welfare and redistribution through self-interested rationalities. However, such an approach risks abstracting individuals from the structural determinants of resource allocation and biographical experience. With that in mind, this paper draws on a qualitative study of fifty individuals experiencing relative deprivation and affluence in the UK and New Zealand to examine how lived experiences of inequality affect attitude formation towards welfare and redistribution. Scenario-driven vignettes were used to stimulate an applied discussion of abstract principles pertaining to welfare and inequality. Use of this methodological device proffered novel insight into the phenomenological effects of material position on public attitudes and policy preferences in a comparative context. The findings suggest that affluent individuals are less likely to acknowledge systemic features shaping socio-economic life. As a result, they exhibit a poor sociological imagination that is deployed in distinct and patterned ways to make sense of, and at times justify, economic restructuring. By contrast, those living in relative deprivation are more likely to advance accounts of intergroup relations and social location that emphasise the structuration of (dis-) advantage. Based on the findings, policy and political implications are considered for welfare and redistribution amidst rising structural inequality.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: 'Edmiston, D (2018) The Poor ‘Sociological Imagination’ of the Rich: Explaining Attitudinal Divergence towards Welfare, Inequality and Redistribution. Social Policy & Administration, 52 (5). pp. 983-997,' which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12366. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | affluence; attitudes; deprivation; lived experience; welfare politics |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Sociology and Social Policy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 02 Oct 2017 12:12 |
Last Modified: | 06 Dec 2019 01:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/spol.12366 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:121863 |