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The Welfare Exchange Reconsidered*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Stephen Uttley
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Abstract

The objective of this article is to explore aspects of the nature and process of exchange in welfare systems. The welfare exchange was the focus of much discussion in the early 1970s stemming from the writings of Titmuss, Pinker and Pruger, and this article starts with a review of that debate. In searching for a more adequate theoretical framework it argues that Gouldner's work on reciprocity, beneficence and complementarity provides that framework. A model of exchange on an interpersonal level is put forward in which welfare exchanges are viewed as lying along a continuum reflecting the notions of reciprocity and beneficence, with exchanges at each end of the continuum being represented by the two types of complementarity. Dependency, power and disequilibrium are seen as crucial factors in the exchange process, and the total pattern of exchanges is shown to be strongly influenced by the pattern of resource generation and availability within which all exchanges occur. Different types of social services are located at various points along the exchange continuum, and these are seen as reflecting differing relationships between service donors and individual service recipients. The final section of the article is concerned with discussing the influence of the interaction between ‘servers’ employed by agencies and service recipients.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , April 1980 , pp. 187 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

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11 Ibid. p. 151.

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16 The discussion of these three types of exchange is based on Chapters 7, 8 and 9 in Gouldner, op. cit. pp. 190–300.

17 It could be argued that reciprocity is not a truly universal norm; see for example Turnbull, Colin M., The Mountain People, Jonathan Cape, London, 1973.Google Scholar

18 Perhaps Gouldner could be accused of mixing the interactional and inter-structural levels of analysis here, although the idea of an intervening structure is important when one is considering the functioning of welfare agencies, as will be explored later in this article (see pp. 201–3, below).

19 Gouldner, op. cit. p. 250.

20 Ibid. p. 266.

21 He does of course retain the option of refusing to take part in the exchange.

22 Gouldner, op. cit. p. 282.

23 Power is used here as meaning the ability of one individual to influence the other in such a way as to fulfil his own objectives.

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30 Ibid. p. 113.

31 The analysis is applied to public services and not services in the private sector or those of voluntary agencies.

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