‘Show me you're trying, that's all…’: Exploring the discursive impact of punishments and incentives in the Welsh homelessness system as ‘controlled conditionalities’

Discussion around sanctions within the welfare state has been largely framed within a Wacquantian understanding of punitive modes of governance, neglecting the discursive life of conditionality as a source of normative social control. I use a Critical Discourse Analysis of extended interviews with 98 actors within the Welsh homelessness system to propose that conditionality operates through sanctions to further an agenda of creating a context responsibilisation and empowerment. I draw upon Deleuze's Societies of Control approach, proposing the term ‘controlled conditionalities’ to account for the power of illusory freedom through opportunity, operating through tight control of choice. I show (1) that despite the changes to homelessness law in Wales, Wacquantian‐style punitive conditionality is perceived as largely irrelevant by those engaged in administering the system; (2) ‘controlled conditionalities’ operate through abandonment of welfare citizens (3) ‘controlled conditionalities’ operate primarily through curating a desire in applicants to be recognised as normative and compliant. The paper offers a nuanced counter to a prevailing understanding of punitivity as a dominant and effective form of welfare governance and advances theoretical approaches through the development of the concept of controlled conditionalities.