Abstract

In Germany the institutional context of fighting poverty and longterm unemployment has undergone a substantial reconstruction during the last years. One very important step within this process was the codification of the second volume of the Social Security Code ("Sozialgesetzbuch II = SGB II"), which took effect in 2005. It may well be assumed that this legislative and institutional development has affected the common processes of becoming and staying needy as well as the process of overcoming neediness. Thus the major aim of the research project is to reconstruct the patterns of poverty dynamics and their connections to institutional processes of poverty prevention, alleviation and reduction. A comprehensive understanding of these dynamics has to based on a detailed analysis of what happens if one gets poor and/or overcomes poverty. For that purpose a field study is conducted, based on the principles of qualitative social resarch (biographical-narrative interviews, observations). According to the conceptual framework of this enquiry neediness results from an interaction of the following dimensions which will be analyzed and put into context: (a) Precarious levels of material and non-material ressources, (b) capabilities and structures of everyday life (individual and social orientations, competences, action patterns and the structure of social networks), and (c) institutional support structures, especially within the welfare system. Since potential income from work is one of the most important means to overcome privation the project pays special attention to labour market aspects, (d) especially the composition and possible decomposition of labour related skills and competences of employable persons. To learn more about the longitudinal effects of new poverty and labour market policies each interviewee will be interrogated repeatedly over a period of about three and a half years.