Workfare als Mindestsicherung

Abstract

Die individuelle Möglichkeit, Notwendigkeit sowie Art und Weise, die eigene Arbeitskraft zur Existenzsicherung zu verkaufen, werden von staatlicher Sozialpolitik geformt. Neu an einer Workfare-Politik ist nicht, dass Einzelne ihre Arbeitskraft verkaufen (müssen). Neu an Workfare sind vielmehr die Rahmenbedingungen, die mit sozialpolitischen Maßnahmen gesetzt werden. Anhand der Entwicklung der Mindestsicherung zeichnet das Buch die Ursprünge, Ansätze und Ausdehnung der Workfare-Logik in der deutschen Sozialhilfe von 1962 bis zu deren voller Blüte im SGB II alias Hartz-IV-Gesetz nach.

Images and imaginaries of unemployed people: Discursive shifts in the transition from active to activating labour market policies in Germany

“…Building upon Jessop’s analytical framework, numerous scholars have focused on the replacement of (de-commodifying) welfare policies with (re-commodifying) workfare policies associated with the transition from KWS to SWS in the fields of social welfare and labour market policy (e.g. Brütt, 2011: 90–91; Grell, 2008: 65–79; Grover and Stewart, 1999; Torfing, 1999). They have also attempted to improve the framework’s methodology in order ‘to explore, and to speculate about, the embryonic regulatory functions of workfarism, and to do so in a way that is not functionalist’ (Peck, 2001: 351).…”

“…Specifically, I focus on LMPs where this transition has been described as a policy change from an active to an activating approach (e.g. Brütt, 2011: 107–149; Neumann and Schaper, 2008: 125–155). As, for example, Weishaupt (2011) pointed out, both models were promoted as guiding principles by international organisations such as the European Union (EU) and in particular the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).…”

“…Especially the last of these bills, the new Basic Provision for Jobseekers, which was established by the Hartz IV legislation, marked the final breakthrough of an activating LMP in Germany (Neumann and Schaper, 2008: 148–152). Hence, its primary aim was to strengthen ‘individual responsibility’ and promote ‘economic independence’ in order to ensure a rapid reintegration of unemployed people into the labour market by a combination of incentives and disincentives with a strong focus on restrictive measures (Mohr, 2007: 198–207; Brütt, 2011: 297–318).…”

“…Against the backdrop of general dialectics of commodification and de-commodification (e.g. Brütt, 2011; Jessop, 2002; Offe, 1984), the questions of whether de- or re-commodifying effects prevail and whether a policy can accordingly be qualified as welfare or workfare must therefore be addressed based on numerous criteria (e.g. range of benefits in terms of covered risks, level of benefits in terms of income replacement, access to benefits in terms of eligibility rules, conditionality of benefits in terms of attached requirements).…”

Social Cohesion: A Conceptual and Political Elucidation

“…Social exclusion and inclusion depend crucially on the current functioning of the labour market with its inherent tendency towards increased unemployment, precarious work expectations, an increase in the working poor and discrimination against migrants (Castel, 1998;Barlösius, 2004;Littig and Grießler, 2005). Remedies have been directed towards inclusion training programmes and precarious work contracts, most emblematically achieved in Hartz IV, Germany's broad workfare reform (Brütt, 2009). A German-speaking strand of discussion dwells on the concept of Teilhabe (partaking) (Kronauer, 2002(Kronauer, , 2007Novy, 2007), which links the socioeconomic and political dimensions of cohesion.…”