Social policy analysis routinely suggests that welfare reform is damaging the social rights of vulnerable groups. But what does this actually mean? Recognising (and overcoming) the conceptual vagueness of social citizenship might help provide some clarity, says Daniel Edmiston from the University of Leeds in a new guest blog.

He suggests that greater attention to the constitutive elements of citizenship can help clarify the significance of welfare conditionality and its bearing on social rights. To To do that, he says, we need to look at three key considerations of relevance: what effect is welfare conditionality having on the ‘effectiveness’, ‘inalienability’ and ‘universality’ of social rights?

Social tagging: Daniel Edmiston, social citizenship, social rights, welfare reform