The limits of helping under conditions of multiple crises

The aim is to explore the symbolic boundaries of helping. These are determined on 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 practices of helping are interlinked with state agencies – especially local government; and at the macro level, in the way discourses of helping mediated by the mass media are reflected in the symbolic demarcations of actors from different social milieus. These objectives will be addressed in three sub-projects – corresponding to these levels – based on the analysis of individual and expert interviews, group discussions and media discourses. Firstly, the way in which volunteers and refugees in rural areas reflect on and evaluate their practices of helping and the relationships that have emerged from them will be examined. 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 sub-project focuses on how the actors involved engage with this everyday aid and the boundaries they mark in their practices. Secondly, it examines the way in which local authorities and volunteers interact in supporting refugees. The sub-project will answer the questions of where local authorities mark the boundaries of voluntary help and insist on state responsibilities, where they replace their own responsibilities with voluntary work and how conflicts between volunteers and municipal employees are handled and resolved. Thirdly, it examines the way in which justifications of helping and its limits are discursively produced and how these are conveyed to 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 are increasingly grappling with their own dependency and vulnerability. The aim of the sub-project is to reconstruct the (exclusive) solidarities that emerge under these conditions and to examine the way in which they are reflected in justifications of helping and their limits in different social milieus. The research findings, which will also be made available to the wider public via events, podcasts and publications, are intended to promote public debate about the limits of helping and their justifications. In concrete terms, both volunteers who are involved in helping others and public administrations that coordinate their measures with volunteers can benefit from the research group’s findings.

Responsible for the project: Prof. Dr. Greta Wagner

The project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)