Navigating Unemployment in a Punitive System

This chapter investigates the lived experiences of unemployed young men in Glasgow and Liverpool, drawing on qualitative interviews and quantitative data to reveal how welfare policy reinforces structural exclusion. It critiques the punitive logic of Universal Credit and welfare conditionality, and argues that these systems operate less as support mechanisms and more as instruments of surveillance and behavioural discipline. Mobilising Foucault&s;s concept of disciplinary power and his conceptualisation of Bentham&s;s panopticon, and insights from Pavlovian behavioural psychology, the chapter demonstrates how welfare regimes enforce conformity through sanctions, monitoring and symbolic humiliation. These practices are rooted in deeper ideological continuities – drawing from Christian doctrines of original sin, Victorian moralism and colonial governance – that frame the unemployed as morally suspect and undeserving. Against this backdrop, the chapter engages Fraser&s;s concept of misframing – as part of her broader theory of representation – and Sen&s;s capabilities approach to argue for a reimagining of welfare that moves beyond punitive activation towards meaningful support, skill development and human dignity. The young men&s;s narratives call for structural transformation in the very cultural and political imaginaries surrounding work, worth and welfare.