Framing Social Policies for Aspirational Justice: A Perspective Oriented Towards the Enhancement of Capability to Aspire and Capability for Voice

Social policies are meant to tackle vulnerability processes, but they do not always reach their target. This (partial) failure can be explained by a multiplicity of reasons, e.g. the inadequacy of available resources, inappropriate expectations placed on beneficiaries, etc. This contribution claims that an important reason for explaining the limitations of social policies lies in their inability to take beneficiaries’ aspirations and voices seriously, often resulting for the most disadvantaged among them in exclusionary processes or non-take-up of benefits and services. The paper investigates this issue, mobilizing a perspective based on the notions of capability to aspire and capability for voice.

In a first step, the sense of these notions is theoretically explored, based on the receiver-doer-judge framework that proposes a multidimensional notion of vulnerability encompassing material well-being, capacity to act and political participation. In a second step, it identifies what such notions entail for the conception of public action and public services in the field of welfare. This is then confronted with the findings of empirical studies in the field of youth policies, with a view to assessing their impact on their beneficiaries’ capability to aspire and capability for voice. A multilevel perspective is used to investigate to what extent there is a gap between vulnerability a) as it is experienced at micro level (a multidimensional and complex fact), b) as it is framed by social policies at macro level (vulnerability as a social problem to be solved, in a normative perspective detailing the expectations that beneficiaries ought to comply with) and c) as it is implemented by public agents (at the crossroad between fact and norm). The contribution offers some concrete suggestions how social policies might more efficiently reach their goals and promote aspirational justice.