The Modern Poor: On the Sociological Position of Social-Aid Clients

The social-aid institution has been analyzed almost exclusively from a social problems approach, aiming at the understanding of social aid clients as a social problem. This article views them from a different angle, as a sociological category occupying a unique position in society. Following Simmel, we deal here with those who are poor in a social sense, i.e., anyone receiving public assistance. It is the acceptance of social assistance which makes clients into a specific sociological stratum. The specific kinds of rules and roles involved in any society's public assistance system are thus seen to produce the sociological position of the clients. With goal-motivated assistance, clients tend to be by-passed. With relationship-motivated assistance, the increasing formalization of modern society has made clients and practioners equal in one important sense—both are subordinated to the same rules and regulations.