Abstract
In 2006, concerns about an emerging “underclass” became a central point of debate in German welfare circles. Some commentators tried to explain this new social phenomenon in the context of a broader set of social realities — the diminishing prospects for advancement faced by a large share of the German labor force. For others, including the leader of the Social Democratic Party, the underclass represented a smaller but more deviant social element that had “come to terms” with its poverty and lacked ambition to improve its circumstances. The new debate posed a profound challenge to welfare policy analysts: should the “underclass” be seen as one part of a broader structural reality or as a smaller “deviant” part of the social order, isolated from broader social processes.
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© 2007 VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften | GWV Fachverlage GmbH, Wiesbaden
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Stern, M.J. (2007). Becoming Mainstream: From the Underclass to the Entrepreneurial Poor. In: Kessl, F., Reutlinger, C., Ziegler, H. (eds) Erziehung zur Armut?. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90552-5_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90552-5_3
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