ABSTRACT
The chapter seeks to highlight two central controversies in the relationship between the welfare state and marginalized groups: the legal citizenship–based exclusion from universal human rights and the increasing responsibilization of potential welfare beneficiaries. It highlights these conflicts in terms of their central threats for the realization of allegedly universal claims and suggests pragmatic policy alternatives that could contribute to mitigating the two controversies: resilience-building support for different types of structures and societal institutions, and an emphasis on interactional justice in individualized targeting mechanisms. The chapter identifies ways in which states can possibly do so without negating their general public interest to make effective use of limited resources and to direct governing efforts towards specific policy goals. The attention to the content and procedures of individualized service provision along the lines of an understanding of the embodied and embedded nature of vulnerability could also mitigate the responsibilization debate.
