Abstract

Coming into power in 2023/24, the recent German basic income support reform was intended to increase respect and fair treatment of clients and claimants in welfare authorities' front offices, following a growing normative understanding of welfare as a civil right. The project explores, if and how this so-called Bürgergeld-reform really meets these expectations, or if bureaucratic and hierarchical elements within welfare authorities and their practice still stay relevant. This will be analyzed by focusing on the experiences and perceptions of the clients themselves through narrative interviewing, centered on the subjective perceptions of income, social status, social inclusion and recognition, as well as regarding the relation to the Jobcenter front office. This clientäcentered approach will be framed by analysing organisation-client-communication routines and structures of social space within welfare authorities, based on participant observation, ethnographic walk, visual and document analysis.