The introduction of 'Bürgergeld' as a discursive event?
Project duration: 01.01.2025 to 31.12.2028
Abstract
On the homepage of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany (bundesregierung.de), the ‘Bürgergeld’ introduced on January 1, 2023 is presented as the new basic income support as follows: “State support is now closer to the people, less bureaucratic and more targeted. People on basic income support are better qualified and thus placed in permanent jobs. In addition, the calculation of standard needs has been put on a new footing.” If you think back to the media coverage of the introduction of the law in the last few months of 2022, the increase in the standard requirement in particular was (critically) discussed or presented as the most relevant change in the redesign of basic income support. In conversations with job center placement specialists, however, such assessments were read as an evaluation of their previous work and interpreted as if their professional efforts were not appreciated. If we are to follow the lead of placement specialists, those entitled to benefits interpret their rights as newly interpreted primarily to the effect that they may no longer be forced to take specific actions by placement specialists. Some of them are actually demanding the rights they have declared, while others - especially those who are unaware of their new rights - say that nothing has changed. There already seems to be an indication that the “biggest social reform in 20 years” - from the most diverse sides - is not as is not perceived as being as significant as it was intended to be. Instead, some say that it does not go far enough, others affirm that they have always worked according to the intended maxims and still others would like to see a different (social) approach to those entitled to basic benefits. In these and other (self-)positionings, subjects fall back on social or discursive constructions of social reality. These discursive attributions, for example with regard to justice, the relevance of gainful employment, the duties of people without work, the state's right to intervene in the lives of these people, etc., also shape the positioning of the Citizen's Income. The project proposed here therefore aims to shed light on how such different interpretations come about. It asks: ... ... the basis on which such interpretations of the (new) basic income are made. ... the change in the discourse on basic income support from the introduction of the Hartz laws to the introduction of the citizen's income - ... Changes in the attributions of interpretation (and practices based on them) in the reinterpretation of sanctions as reductions in benefits? ... life-world backgrounds that guide the evaluation of the new basic income support. ... Consequences of a (possible) shift in discourse following the legal reform (as a discursive event) for power relations (for example with regard to stereotypical prejudices on the street, in the counseling situation in the job center or also between the beneficiaries and the taxpayers who are often consulted?)