Since the turn of the millennium, at the level of federal policy in Germany there has been a political field focused specifically on the promotion of social engagement. How did it come to this? Who was behind this process? Daniela Neumann gets to the bottom of these questions by making connections to theories of discourse, hegemony and governmentality. Using the analysis of political and media discourses, she reveals the social transformation in the approach to voluntary work that has taken place since the 1980s, and illuminates struggles of interpretation and institutionalization between diverse interest groups. It becomes clear that the formation of a state policy of social engagement was in no way a necessity.
