Abstract:  Social protection is often presented as a compassionate response to vulnerability, linking care and inclusion through the lens of autonomy. However, access to social rights is increasingly conditional on activation requirements and compliance with labour market standards. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Switzerland, this article analyzes non‐take‐up of social rights not as a simple lack of information or a failure of inclusion, but as a socially and morally situated response to these forms of conditional compassion. Using the conceptual framework of an ecology of abandonment, the article shows how some people interpret social policies not as protective measures but as mechanisms of re‐commodification (Polanyi, 2001) and moral control. In this context, non‐take‐up can constitute an infra‐political critique of the welfare state, expressed through ordinary practices of refusal or distancing from institutions. The analysis also highlights how these practices are accompanied by a relocation of care towards informal moral economies based on family, community, or collective relationships, which are unevenly accessible.

Keywords:  ecology of abandonment; infrapolitics; non‐take‐up; social rights

Published:   22 July 2026

Issue:   Vol 14 (2026): Compassionate Futures for Collective Well-Being (In Progress)