Activer la confiance: stratégies de maintien du lien dans l’aide sociale en Belgique

This article analyzes the ways social workers face the inconsistencies of activation policies in their interactions with beneficiaries, by means of an ethnographical research in a socio-professional integration service in the field of social assistance in Belgium. It shows that, in order to articulate the enabling and authoritative dimensions of activation, social workers defend a relationship of trust with beneficiaries while delegating the controlling functions to other actors within the organization. Those strategies can lead to conflicts between different levels of trust because trust can be built in the interaction at the expense of trust towards the institution