Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, York St John University, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York YO31 7EX, UK.
Br J Soc Psychol. 2011 Sep;50(3):450-68. doi: 10.1348/014466610X520113. Epub 2011 Mar 25.
This paper draws on the concept of ideological dilemmas in order to explore how a sample of young people constructed potentially contrary themes of liberal citizenship in discussions of un/employment. The study took place in the context of recent policy developments in the UK which have sought to place a renewed emphasis upon notions of responsible citizenship in relation to both welfare and education policy. A total of 58 participants were interviewed in 24 semi-structured group interviews. In response to direct questions on un/employment, participants could resolve dilemmas concerning welfare rights and the responsibility to contribute to society by emphasizing a criterion of effortfulness, thereby adopting a primarily individualistic explanation of unemployment. In other contexts however, this could be replaced by an emphasis on social explanations of unemployment. In particular, participants could treat immigration as a cause of unemployment. These findings are interpreted in terms of people's capacity to construct rhetorical strategies based upon different ideological themes in particular contexts. They are discussed in relation to previous research on social policy discourse and recent debates regarding the appropriateness of seeking to identify ideological themes in discourse.
本文借鉴了思想困境的概念，以探讨一组年轻人在讨论失业时如何构建潜在对立的自由公民主题。该研究是在英国最近的政策发展背景下进行的，这些政策试图在福利和教育政策方面重新强调负责任的公民观念。共有 58 名参与者参加了 24 次半结构化小组访谈。针对失业问题的直接提问，参与者可以通过强调努力的标准来解决有关福利权利和为社会做出贡献的责任的困境，从而对失业做出主要是个人主义的解释。然而，在其他情况下，这可能会被强调失业的社会解释所取代。特别是，参与者可以将移民视为失业的一个原因。这些发现根据人们在特定情况下构建基于不同思想主题的修辞策略的能力进行了解释。它们是在与社会政策话语研究和最近关于在话语中寻找思想主题的适当性的辩论相关的背景下进行讨论的。
