Moral Capital and the Struggle to Convert in Welfare Encounters

2026/07/28 by Floris Noordhoff
Social Sciences · #Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Social Work Education and Practice

paper · doi:10.1086/742179

crossref issued 2026/07/28 · crossref published 2026/07/28 · crossref published-online 2026/07/28 · openalex publication_date 2026/07/28 · crossref created 2026/07/28 · crossref deposited 2026/07/28 · crossref indexed 2026/07/28 · openalex created_date 2026/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

This article examines how long-term welfare recipients attempt to convert cultural, social, economic, and symbolic resources within a welfare system shaped by moral evaluation and routine monitoring. Drawing on 216 in-depth interviews from the Netherlands, the study posits moral capital as institutionally attributed credibility, produced through welfare officials’ assessments of claimants’ honesty, effort, and cooperation. I identify five strategies: navigating classifications, managing reciprocity, drawing moral boundaries, resisting or adapting to administrative demands, and seeking work to restore standing. Across these strategies, clients show constrained agency as deservingness judgments filter and reclassify their efforts, shaping whether resources generate recognition or remain ineffective. The findings show how moral assessment governs access to support and opportunities and suggest that trust, continuity of contact, and context-sensitive discretion are central to reducing misclassification and enabling more stable pathways out of long-term dependence.

Citations

• Grounded theory research: Procedures, canons, and evaluative criteria
• Organizational Resources and Environmental Incentives: Understanding the Policy Advocacy Involvement of Human Service Nonprofits
• Making the difference in social Europe: deservingness perceptions among citizens of European welfare states
• Policy Work: Street-Level Organizations Under New Managerialism
• Good Clients and Hard Cases: The Role of Typologies at the Welfare Front Line
• Does digital government hollow out the essence of street‐level bureaucracy? A systematic literature review of how digital tools' foster curtailment, enablement and continuation of street‐level decision‐making
• How Long‐Held Perceptions of Deservingness Continue to Shape Public Attitudes About Program Eligibility