Paper short abstract:

The definition of "Eligibility" is central for establishing access to rights and goods. We explore its uses and transformations in the practices of actors claiming or deciding upon such chances of access.

Paper long abstract:

The establishment and denial of eligibility is today a quotidian and ubiquitous bureaucratic act determining access to rights and goods. It can be understood as a dialogical moment of negotiation of various actors, be they state bureaucrats, lawyers, medical assessors, aid organizations, witnesses, and the applicants/potential claimants/candidates, in which the credibility of certain claims, the authenticity of persons, and 'truth' is judged. We enquire into the criteria mobilized by different actors for creating eligibility and into the determination of evidence for justifying claims to and decisions about eligibility. In order to understand the ways in which different actors come to imagine 'the deserving other', we explore how ideas of eligibility respond to historical shifts, are adapted, and how they relate to ideas of a body politic.