Paper short abstract:

In present-day welfare contexts, the willingness to extend solidarity is oftentimes accompanied by expectations of reciprocation. This paper explores solidarity's ambivalence by focusing on the affective responses to non-reciprocity among social professionals in a Belgian housing cooperative.

Paper long abstract:

In present-day welfare contexts, the willingness to extend solidarity is oftentimes accompanied by expectations of reciprocation. Many civil society initiatives focus on active participation by the communities they work with. Such participation is taken to be a sign of gratitude: taking part in (voluntary) activities becomes a way of ‘giving something in return’. But what happens when such reciprocal expectations are not met, when reciprocity 'fails'?

This paper explores the ambivalence of solidarity by focusing on the affective responses that non-reciprocity engenders. Based on ethnographic research with a social cooperative in Belgium which provides housing to families with a migration background, it discusses how the organization's social professionals negotiate feelings of hurt and dissatisfaction in response to what they perceive as 'failed' reciprocity, as well as the moral dilemmas this poses for their practice. Through an exploration of the ambiguities encountered in everyday social work practices, this paper asks then how affective responses to non-reciprocity impact on the possibility for solidarities to emerge.