Gefühlte Mitte – prekäre soziale Selbstverortung von Grundsicherungsbeziehenden

The implementation of the Social Code II (SGB II - Hartz IV) in 2005 represents a fundamental reform in German social and labour market policy which has remained controversial until the present time. Critics see in the reform a contribution to a splitting of society and a reinforcement of poverty, both fostering tendencies towards the marginalisation and stigmatisation of welfare recipients. Based on qualitative data the article pursues the question of how far the feared social exclusion of welfare recipients is reflected in their perceptions. Drawing on interviews and data gathered by using the method of “graphic elicitation“ welfare recipients’ views of the society they live in and the ways they locate themselves within society are reconstructed. Many welfare recipients still make a claim to be considered as members of the middle class but are aware of the precarity of this self-classification. Thus they strongly seek to delineate themselves against those who they suspect to be members of a class below them. It is shown that recipients of basic social security provision frequently find themselves in an anomic social position.