Why is it so hard as someone living in poverty and unemployment to become socially active against those conditions? Their employment is indeed diverse - whether at the food banks, in counseling or in the protest against »the dole«. But the mechanisms of discrimination which act as barriers to these actors' claims for equality are also in effect in civil society. Leiv Eirik Voigtländer, with the help of qualitative interviews, analyses typical beneficial and inhibiting conditions of action, and thereby contributes to an understanding of the social division of civic action in the context of eroding social rights. The predominant focus on the civil apathy of the precarious is thus countered by the experiences of socially active citizens in situations of poverty.
