Die soziale Positionierung Soloselbstständiger während der Corona-Pandemie: Verhandlungen der Soforthilfe

This paper investigates the relationship between solidarity and the norm to be employed during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on emergency aid for solo self-employed workers. It adopts a discourse-analytical perspective, examining the governmental strategies involved and the subject norms and formations that affect them. This financial aid offered collective compensation for loss of earnings for self-employed workers who operate outside the solidarity community created by social insurance. The study queries whether this support is a unique act of solidarity or aligns with neoliberal rationalities. A subjectivation analysis explores the workers' position-making. It regards the interplay between assigned and taken subject positions, employing documents from political discourse and qualitative interviews with self-employed workers as empirical data. The analysis identifies the central justifications for financial aid and the subject norms attributed to the solo self-employed. Findings suggest that the moral sentiments expressed by the solo self-employed reflect the ambivalences discussed by Simmel (1908) regarding social aid. The temporary recognition of the solo self-employed as system-relevant underscores their importance in the capitalist infrastructure, at the same time, it does not eliminate the social stigma associated with neediness.