This book discusses and illustrates how deservingness can be approached as discursively and rhetorically accomplished phenomenon having varied empirical consequences with regard to welfare, poverty, class and care arrangements.

Laura Tarkiainen (DSocSc) is a university lecturer and postdoctoral social work researcher at Tampere University. Laura's research interests concern discourses on prolonged unemployment, conditionalities, poverty and deservingness.

1.Introduction. 2.Deservingness Theories and Conceptualisations. 3.Policy Discourse and Deservingness. 4.Reality TV's Representations of Deservingness. 5.Frontline Workers and Deservingness Assessments. 6.Deservingness Negotiated in Research Settings with Individuals. 7.Conclusions