The article focuses on how people living on basic income benefits position street-level bureaucrats in their speech. The research material consists of 15 unstructured interviews gathered mainly in Association for unemployed. Analysis is done in the context of positioning theory. Participants always have moral positions in discussion and with these positions they have different rights and duties to say certain things. Interviewees ’ speech and especially the word choice reflect on known story-line and interviewees ’ position in it. There is always a new story-line for each shift in interviewees taken or given position. Basic income recipients position street-level bureaucrats as inadequate, disciplining and unpredictable. I interpret that these given positions enable a shift of autonomy from recipients to street-level bureaucrats. Hence the given positioning reflects the story-line of victimhood.
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