Many sociopolitical endeavours since the election of the Austria National Council in October 2017 have been met with opposition by various stakeholders. It is of particular importance that the issue of whether policies disadvantage the weakest social groups is investigated by the profession of Social Workers.

In order to be able to act as an advocate, it is necessary to examine current topics which could affect the life situations of target groups of Social Work.

The research project Social Barometer seeks to not only examine current topics in social politics which are relevant to Social Work – it also aims to put the spotlight on their concrete effects on the life situations of service users. The project focusses on fields such as unemployment allowance, emergency assistance (Notstandshilfe), guaranteed minimum income (Mindestsicherung), labor market policy, the merging of social security providers, family allowances, immigration politics, etc. 

The goal is to design a barometer based on case studies and the analysis of sociopolitical developments to depict current trends. The Inclusion Chart 4 (Pantuček-Eisenbacher / Grigori 2016) could serve as a basis for developing this barometer. The depiction of participation in functional systems (Luhmann 1998) and its tendencies in individual cases should be extended by making it possible to display inclusion and exclusion mechanisms due to sociopolitical changes. 

Such a tool which allows for a concise visual representation of sociopolitical changes and their immediate effects on individual cases could serve as a first step towards “Social Diagnostics of Social Work”, thus enabling Social Workers to better participate in political discourse.