TY - JOUR

T1 - Logics of reciprocity in Denmark

T2 - Longing and belonging in a virtuous cycle of welfare

AU - Spalletta, Olivia

N1 - Funding Information: This article was supported by the American\u2010Scandinavian Foundation; the Carlsberg Foundation [Semper Ardens, grant number CF17\u20100016]; the Independent Research Fund Denmark [grant number 0132\u201000026B]. Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Economic Anthropology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Anthropological Association.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Nordic welfare states are characterized by universal access to generous welfare services, including education, health care, and developmental support. These benefits are maintained through a shared commitment to economic reciprocity. While the centrality of reciprocity to moral and social life in Scandinavian welfare states is well established, it is less clear how citizens evaluate their own and others' reciprocity in daily life. How do everyday Danes come to know that they are reciprocating properly? What does it mean to ask “too much” of the welfare state? What are the consequences for those seen as unable to reciprocate? In this article, I examine how understandings of reciprocity emerge through welfare access and use. I argue that my Danish interlocutors approach reciprocity as an obligation to use welfare resources for the mutual benefit of citizen and society. This is a lifelong project that involves properly positioning oneself within a virtuous cycle of welfare beginning in childhood. Taking the experiences of parents raising children with Down syndrome in Denmark as an empirical point of departure, I argue that this logic of reciprocity is employed not only to justify one's own welfare use but also as an explanatory model for excluding others from benefits.

AB - Nordic welfare states are characterized by universal access to generous welfare services, including education, health care, and developmental support. These benefits are maintained through a shared commitment to economic reciprocity. While the centrality of reciprocity to moral and social life in Scandinavian welfare states is well established, it is less clear how citizens evaluate their own and others' reciprocity in daily life. How do everyday Danes come to know that they are reciprocating properly? What does it mean to ask “too much” of the welfare state? What are the consequences for those seen as unable to reciprocate? In this article, I examine how understandings of reciprocity emerge through welfare access and use. I argue that my Danish interlocutors approach reciprocity as an obligation to use welfare resources for the mutual benefit of citizen and society. This is a lifelong project that involves properly positioning oneself within a virtuous cycle of welfare beginning in childhood. Taking the experiences of parents raising children with Down syndrome in Denmark as an empirical point of departure, I argue that this logic of reciprocity is employed not only to justify one's own welfare use but also as an explanatory model for excluding others from benefits.

KW - belonging

KW - Denmark

KW - disability

KW - reciprocity

KW - welfare state

U2 - 10.1002/sea2.12328

DO - 10.1002/sea2.12328

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85195576011

JO - Economic Anthropology

JF - Economic Anthropology

SN - 2330-4847

ER -