Solidaritätsorientierungen und soziale Positionen. Klassenhabituelle Haltungen zu Sozialstaat und Geflüchteten in Österreich

The article examines the importance of social class in shaping solidarity orientations in Austria, especially with regard to welfare state arrangements and solidarity with refugees. It builds on 48 interviews conducted between 2016 and 2019. Distinguishing multiple dimensions of solidarity, the paper builds a typology of seven solidarity configurations, which are then systematically related to the class position of interviewees articulating them. In that context, not only objective class positions, but also latent mechanisms of habitus formation are taken into account. In so doing, the paper indicates how solidarity configurations of both privileged and non-privileged interviewees are shaped, but not determined by class. This casts new light on meaningful differences in the scope, conditions and underlying normative principles of distinct solidarity configurations. Class is key to understanding how attitudes towards the community of welfare solidarity are tied to specific preferences as to who should be included in and excluded from that community.