The Political Economy of Social Welfare in Nigeria: Social Work, the State, and the Reproduction of Inequality

The political economy of social welfare in Nigeria has received insufficient theoretical attention in social work scholarship, particularly regarding how state welfare choices reflect and reproduce structural inequalities along class, gender, and ethnic lines. This doctoral study theorises the relationship between Nigeria's political economy, state welfare architecture, and social work's complicity or resistance in inequality reproduction, drawing on Gramsci's hegemony theory, Poulantzas's state theory, and feminist political economy. An interpretive research design employs critical ethnography across three purposively selected Nigerian states representing different oil revenue and welfare investment profiles, generating data through 50 in-depth interviews, policy document analysis, and extended field observation of welfare service settings. Data are analysed through critical discourse analysis and political economy analytical framework. The study makes an original theoretical contribution by developing the concept of Welfare Hegemonic Compromise, describing the mechanisms through which Nigerian state welfare institutions simultaneously address and reproduce poverty while maintaining political legitimacy. The study's methodological contribution includes pioneering the application of critical ethnography to social work research in Nigerian welfare settings. Transformative recommendations include repositioning social work as a force for structural advocacy and policy reform within Nigeria's welfare architecture. Keywords: political economy, social welfare, social work, hegemony theory, inequality reproduction