The Welfare State

A General Theory

Bibliographic Data

ID5825941
AuthorsPaul Spicker (0000-0001-8003-3459, corresponding author)
Year2000
Publication date2000-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueThe Welfare State (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherSAGE Publications Ltd (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4135/9781446219959
OpenAlexW280684557
Open LibraryOL51658053M
ISBN9781446219959
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited16

This is most obviously the case with occupational roles; social introductions often begin with the question, 'what do you do?', and the familiar answers -police officer, pharmacist, refuse disposal operative, circus acrobat -conjure a picture, not just of the job, but of the person's patterns of life, education, and social milieu.Equally, there are other kinds of role -parents, patients, even bystanders -which mean that people who find themselves in a situation or a relationship have some idea of how to behave, and what to expect.The role defines, not just what people do, but what they can be expected to do.People tend to occupy, not one role, but many.No-one is just a teacher, only a daughter, nothing but an old person -or, if they were, we would think there is something seriously wrong with their life.But when we know that someone is a professional artist, mother of four, postgraduate student and member of a feminist reading group, we begin to get a picture of the person.(In this case, it is a caricature, because there is not enough information here to show the whole picture, but at least there is a start.)To the sociologist, Dahrendorf once wrote, people are defined by their roles. 24 The roles summarise the range of relationships that a person has; the relationships cover the circumstances in which the person reacts with other people. THE NATURE OF THE PERSONAL I.1.b. People are defined by their social relationships.In sociology, a person is defined by their social relationships -that is, relationships to other people.This view may seem strange, because many of us would make the assumption that a person is the same thing as a human being.There can be, however, persons who are not human beings.A corporation, a firm, or a trust can be a person in law.Companies can own and dispose of property, they can be insulted, and they can take action.The converse of this position is that it may be possible to be human without being recognised as a person.A person whose social relationships cease, and whose property is dissolved and distributed, may continue to exist in body but not in other respects.People are socially dead if they are left without any social roles; they become non-persons.This may be the position, unfortunately, of people in long-stay institutions. 25'Social death' does not imply that a person vanishes altogether, because in social terms people who are physically dead do not really cease to exist, either.They have been part of a pattern of social relationships, and aspects of those relationships continue to apply after death.People can leave wills, which determine the use of their property after their death.Courts in England can require a dead person's estate to continue to support people who were supported when the dead person was alive. 26 Death is not the end, then, though it has to be admitted it is something of an inconvenience

Algorithm · Economics · Mathematical economics · Political science · State (computer science) · Welfare state · Computer Science · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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