General introduction

Having considered relevant theoretical discussions in Part 1, the purpose of this second part of the book is to allow the perceptions, experiences and expectations of some welfare service users1 to become a part of ongoing debates about citizenship and, more particularly, its welfare element. In order to achieve this aim the next three chapters draw extensively on the voices and opinions of users as expressed in a series of focus group discussions that took place in 1997 within the metropolitan district of Bradford, England. It was intended that these focus group sessions would provide the book with a series of group interviews to act as located case studies that were relevant to an analysis of both citizenship and welfare.

Given previously stated concerns about contemporary citizenship and welfare debates being dominated by powerful ‘expert’ voices (compare Beresford and Turner, 1997) a decision was taken to set up group interviews with as wide a range of users as possible. In an attempt to ensure that the research did not exacerbate the social exclusion experienced by certain sections of British society, it was resolved to make use of a broadly inclusive sampling framework so that the accounts of men and women, young and old, white, African Caribbean and Asian citizens and so on could be drawn upon. Some further purposively driven sampling decisions were also taken. First, given the extent of the exclusion of ‘welfare state service users’ from welfare debates in the past, and the aim of documenting and interpreting service user experiences and opinions, it was decided to largely (though not exclusively) sample a number of groups whose members, for one reason or another, were reliant on various state social welfare benefits for their day-to-day survival. Second, because of Bradford's relatively large Muslim community and a noted absence of research into their views on the central themes of the book (Dean and Khan, 1997), it was resolved to include several groups of British Muslims within the sample. It is hoped that this book builds on the earlier insights offered by Law et al (1994) and Cohen et al (1992) into the perceptions and experiences of the Muslim minority population in relation to welfare issues and the notion of citizenship.