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This study on the canton of Zug does not only look at the problematic aspects of social welfare. While these are also looked at, the interest is basically in all offers, assured benefits and prescribed measures provided by society for people in distress or in situations that have been classified as precarious.
The spectrum examined includes material support for those in need of help and insurance benefits as well as relevant counselling and mediation services or voluntary or enforced outpatient and inpatient care. Who came into the focus of social welfare that encompassed social and health care? What legal framework conditions were set? Which institutions and facilities existed, and which public and private bodies and actors were involved? How did those affected and involved experience social welfare, and what was everyday life like in welfare institutions?
This broad approach to the topic is the first attempt to grasp social welfare as a complex dispositif of demand and services, of actors and options for action, which has changed over the course of 170 years, on the basis of a manageable community such as the Canton of Zug. The fact that there are no methodological models to fall back on makes the project both challenging and innovative.