Ordinary practices and representations beyond scandals
To which degree did the media discourse on social aid stigmatize or banalize "bad" behavior? Did the turning point at the beginning of the eighties mark a true break? This study queries the categories "single mothers" and "substance abusers" in order to identify discursive temporalities as well as the calls for coercive measures for persons considered to be "atypical" and bearing the risk of becoming a burden on society as a whole.
To which degree did the media discourse on social aid stigmatize or banalize "bad" behavior? Did the turning point at the beginning of the eighties mark a true break? This study queries the categories "single mothers" and "substance abusers" in order to identify discursive temporalities as well as the calls for coercive measures for persons considered to be "atypical" and bearing the risk of becoming a burden on society as a whole.
Project description (completed research project)
This project analyses discourses of the media, experts, political and public players in the field of social aid and those condemning its misuse. By analyzing the two «objective» categories, that is to say categories considered to be evident by the general public and subject to changing perceptions – the abuse of psychotropic substances and "girl-mothers" – this study gains understanding for the changes as well as for the continuity of discourse in the Lake Geneva region as well as the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. How have media-effective and professional discourses, on the one hand, and administrative practices, on the other, interacted since 1960? Which discourses developed on practice? Did they support or denounce practice? How, finally, can insight into this development of discourse demonstrate useful possibilities in view of establishing a better balance between support and coercion and which political guardrails for social normativity are necessary in order to prevent a drift?
Results
The summary of the results for this project are available here:
Original title
Ordinary practices and representations beyond scandals. Questioning regional dissimilarities (1960–today)