PhD Student Kiran Nihalani Has Co-authored a Piece on Opendemocracy

Credit: Flickr/lambs.frances. CC BY 2.0.

We are all interdependent, but a person’s economic situation determines whether dependency is seen as acceptable or not, argues Kiran Nihalani, Phd Student at FASS in a new article in Open Democracy. We are all familar with terms such as 'hardworking families' or the supposed binary between 'shirker or worker' and '‘strivers versus scroungers'. In this article, Kiran explores how this language contributes to justifying and explaining current welfare policy. Yet it has devastating effects on people it demonizes. Based on her research and her work with the skillsnetwork, Kiran challenges assumptions underlying and driving punitive welfare policies.