Families receiving basic assistance in Germany. Interaction effects between relationships and institutional contexts in "poor families"

家庭是应对经济限制和不稳定的生活状况的主要层面。因此，物质匮乏会对家庭生活的组织产生影响。然而，与此同时，面临收入贫困的家庭生活被福利国家的公共机构所框定，例如德国为求职者提供的经经济状况调查的基本援助(Grundsicherung für Arbeitsuhende)。特别是，植根于这一法律制度的社区建设界定了家庭成员之间的关系和团结，因此对家庭的日常生活有很大的影响。虽然这种情况在辅助性原则的背景下一直如此，但在福利国家根据“激活”范式发生变化的情况下更是如此，即政策目标从被动转向积极的社会政策：在“哈兹改革”之后，第二号社会法典(“Sozialgesetzbuch II”，简称：SGB II)规定的德国为求职者提供基本援助的制度越来越注重调动求职者的积极性(申请培训、行为规则，例如接受任何工作的义务，制裁)，并通过构建“需要共同体”(“Bedarfsgomeinschaft”)重新定义家庭成员之间的责任。因此，家庭关系是如何在这些条件下塑造和传记设计的，以及政治机构在这些过程中扮演什么监管角色，是一个迫切需要研究的问题。因此，该项目以在德国接受基本援助的家庭为例，审查了夫妻和亲子关系的微观社会动态与体制背景之间的相互作用。正在调查的是领取基本失业救济金的家庭的关系结构如何发展和变化，以及社会法典第二册的体制建设及其在就业机构(“就业中心”)的组织实施在多大程度上影响了家庭关系。在以个案为基础的重建家庭研究框架内，将对家庭进行传记访谈。试点项目旨在发展适当的概念，以便更好地理解这种复杂的相互作用影响；这将成为在国际比较中进行更大规模的实证研究的基础。

Family is a primary level of coping with economic constraints and precarious life situations. Material deprivation thus has consequences for the organization of family life. At the same time, however, family life faced with income poverty is framed by public institutions of the welfare state such as the means tested basic assistance for job seekers ("Grundsicherung für Arbeitsuchende") in Germany. In particular, community constructions that are anchored in this legal system define relationships and solidarities between the family members and thus have a strong influence on families’ everyday life. While this has always been the case in the context of the principle of subsidiarity, it applies even more so under the condition of welfare state change in the light of the ‘activation’ paradigm, that is a shift in policy goals from passive to active social policies: In the wake of the "Hartz reforms", the German system of basic assistance for jobseekers regulated in Social Code II (“Sozialgesetzbuch II”, short: SGB II) is increasingly focusing on activation of jobseekers (application training, behavioral rules, e.g. the obligation to accept any job offer, sanctions) and redefines the responsibilities between family members via the construct of the "community of needs" ("Bedarfsgemeinschaft"). How family relationships are shaped and biographically designed under these conditions and what regulatory role political institutions play in these processes is thus an urgent research desideratum. The project therefore examines interactions between the microsocial dynamics of couple and parent-child relationships and institutional contexts using the example of families receiving basic assistance in Germany. Under investigation is how relationship structures in families that receive basic unemployment benefits develop and change and to what extent family relationships are influenced by the institutional constructions of the Social Code Book II and their organizational implementation in employment agencies (“Jobcenter”). In the framework of a case based, reconstructive family research, biographical interviews with families will be conducted. The pilot project aims to develop adequate concepts to better understand such complex interaction effects; this will form the basis for a larger-scale empirical study in international comparison.