ABSTRACT
The introduction chapter provides the background for the discursive and rhetorical work on deservingness and introduces the general aims, justifications and structure of the book. First, the chapter will briefly describe how the concept of welfare deservingness can be regarded as an age-old idea dating back to the early poor relief systems that distinguished people living in poverty as deserving support versus those regarded as less deserving. Second, the introduction will illustrate the argument that welfare deservingness discourse is highly relevant not only from a sociohistorical viewpoint but also from the contemporary welfare state and welfare policy perspective. The chapter will show how deservingness is perceived as intimately linked to language use, thus rendering the analysis of talk the primary subject of the book.
