Trabajo, políticas sociales y sujetos “merecedores” de la asistencia: acuerdos y debates en el nuevo contexto neoliberal en Argentina

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the social construction of the “deservingness” of cash transfers in Argentina through to focus groups of different categories of workers to analyze the perspectives, the justifications and controversies about social assistance, its beneficiaries, and the relation with labor. Their discourses bring about perspectives on the conditions and moral attributes to legitimately “deserve” public aid: assisted people are defined as morally different and social help is questioned. Our findings reveal that the requirements and moral attributes demanded to the subjects “dependent” on social assistance constitute a field of dispute and controversy that exceeds the formal and institutional access requirements. We conclude that these controversies are about the scope and contents of the social integration and the recognition of the groups excluded from social valuation parameters, mainly, of wage labor.