Debate: Social resistance and the absent utopia: comments on Hartley Dean's article Social rights and social resistance

This article focuses on conceptual and methodological problems in the transition from normative conceptions of social rights to more general strategies of social policy. In a discussion of Hartley Dean's article Social Rights and Social Resistance, the author argues that relevant rights strategies within social policy in general transcends the traditional dichotomy, assumed by Dean, between structural approaches and more agent-oriented approaches. In line with this, arguments are presented for the view that the denial of strategies concerning social rights, categorised as opportunistic or anarchistic by Dean, necessitates the formulation of realistic and substantial goal for strivings within social policy. Furthermore, the author claims that the conceptual elaboration of social rights does not in itself have any definite and direct consequences for the field of social policy, where material and symbolic power is more relevant. To transcend the criticised approaches of anarchism and opportunism, there still remains to be formulated a strategy of action.