How social reporting put poverty on the agenda in Germany: an interpretive process tracing analysis
2026-03-10
The existence of poverty in Germany was long denied in politics and media. This problem denial resulted from insufficient research and the pervasive belief that Germany’s comprehensive welfare state had eradicated poverty. This article traces how poverty gradually became a legible policy problem through European-level initiatives, coalitions between civil society and poverty researchers, as well as self-advocacy efforts. Focusing on the institutionalization of the federal government’s Report on Poverty and Wealth ( Armuts- und Reichtumsbericht ), and the integration of marginalized voices through shadow reporting and lived experience workshops, the study examines how actors mobilized new knowledge to (re)configure established political perceptions. Based on qualitative interviews with policy makers, poverty researchers and civil society representatives, the study combines interpretive process tracing with policy feedback theory to identify and analyse key episodes and central mechanisms driving this process. Ultimately, the article proposes an interpretivist framework that sensitizes process tracing and policy feedback theory to reveal how definitional interventions gain institutional traction through underlying mechanisms over time. In this way, it makes two distinct contributions to the field: the explanation of a political process of problem recognition and agenda-setting on poverty and what can be learned from it; and a critical discussion of the use of interpretive process tracing in the analysis of this historical process.