"They seek to convey a certain image" : on repositioning welfare recipients in the activating welfare-state

Abstract

"The twenty-first century welfare state seeks to make its citizens to take on responsibility for social risks such as unemployment and overcoming neediness. This includes to reposition the unemployed and the welfare recipients within the institutional and social framework. In reference to the example of the German welfare reforms known as 'Hartz IV', it can be shown that the respective repositioning progresses along with theoretical and public debates fostering the concept of the 'lazy unemployed'. This has ramifications for the self-descriptions and concepts of reality of welfare recipients, who by this unwillingly become co-constructors of the activating welfare-states' order of social inequalities, which actually promotes risks of social exclusion." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Hirseland, A. & Ramos Lobato, P. (2014): "Die wollen ja ein bestimmtes Bild vermitteln". Zur Neupositionierung von Hilfeempfängern im aktivierenden Sozialstaat. In: SWS-Rundschau, Vol. 54, No. 2, p. 181-200.