Description
Austria is facing substantial changes in its welfare system, but not all members of the society are affected equally. To legitimise these inequalities, a majority opinion based on the 2017 National Assembly election is, among others, regularly enacted positioning the voting public as absent presences within the ongoing policy debates. But absent, they are very much subject to eclectic interpretations. Another iteration of this (at least rhetorically) influential actor/actant is enlisted by a survey conducted around the 2017 election on the topic of solidarity in times of crisis (in framework of the project SOCRIS). Within this survey population, rather a minority expresses interest in reducing public support for socially vulnerable groups as currently implemented by policymakers today and in doing so made ontologically powerful and socially influential. The survey material available offers the opportunity to discuss the common denominator unifying these empowered advocates of reduced public support.For this presentation, one specifics will be introduced in more detail. While varying in most quantified characteristics like occupation status, Autoritarism, etc., variables counting discriminatory attitudes against “foreigners” prove to be the most reliable predictors for the expressed desire for limited institutional solidarity. It is then asked, to what extend this quantitative narrative in conjunction with the (few) studies on the role of racism in Austria supports the depiction of racism as a constitutive mainstay of social inequality and whether the projected welfare arrangements can be seen as (further) institutionalising and cementing inequality based on exclusionary-racifying attitudes? The presentation attempts to address these questions by connecting the concepts of absent presences, institutional and exclusive solidarity and the survey narrative in light of the current welfare policy.
| Period | 20 Aug 2019 → 23 Aug 2019 |
|---|---|
| Event title | 14th Conference of the European Sociological Association Europe and Beyond: Boundaries, Barriers and Belonging Manchester, United Kingdom |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Manchester, United KingdomShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |