Boundaries of Helping under Conditions of Multiple Crises

• Applicant: Dr. Greta Wagner
• Subject Area: Sociological Theory
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 528285395

The goal is to explore symbolic boundaries of helping. These are identified at three levels: At the micro level, in the everyday interaction of practices of helping and their justifications; at the meso level, in the way individual helping practices are intertwined with state agencies - especially local government; and at the macro level, in the way discourses of helping mediated by mass media are reflected in the symbolic demarcations of actors from different social milieus. These goals will be addressed in three subprojects - corresponding to these levels - based on the analysis of individual and expert interviews, group discussions and media discourses. First, the way volunteers and refugees in rural areas reflect on and evaluate their practices of helping and the relationships that emerged from them will be explored. Many of these helping relationships have existed since 2015 and are characterized by a surprising durability. Other helping relationships have emerged since the arrival of Ukrainian women in 2022. The subproject focuses on the engagement of the actors involved with this everyday aid and the boundaries they mark in their practices. Second, it examines the ways in which local governments and volunteer actors intertwine in supporting refugees. The subproject will answer the questions of where local governments mark boundaries of volunteer assistance and insist on state responsibilities, where they substitute their own responsibilities with volunteer engagement, and how conflicts between volunteers and municipal employees proceed and are resolved. Third, it examines the ways in which justifications of helping and its limits are discursively produced and how these are mediated among ordinary actors from different contexts and milieus. Under the conditions of the high frequency of global crises in recent years, it can be assumed that actors increasingly deal with their own dependency and vulnerability. The aim of the subproject is to reconstruct the (exclusive) solidarities that emerge under these conditions and to investigate the way they are reflected in justifications of helping and their limits in different social milieus. The research results, which will also be made available to the broader public through events, podcasts, and publications, will be used to promote public debate about limits to helping and their justifications. Specifically, both volunteers who engage in helping others and public administrators who coordinate their actions with volunteers can benefit from the research group's findings.

• DFG Programme: Independent Junior Research Groups