Abstract (eng)
This thesis is dedicated to a systematization of integration practice through a recognition theory approach. For this purpose, various central integration theories are reconstructed to demonstrate a change of perspective from society as a whole to a more migration focused approach. In this context, the transition from an assimilationist to a more identity-oriented notion of integration is highlighted. This paradigmatic transition illustrates the shift in perspective, according to which disintegration of society as a whole has increasingly come into view in order to highlight particular moments of conflict. However, questions about the right concept of integration and a uniform definition continue to be raised in social science research, especially in sociology. These questions form the starting point and basis of this thesis. On this basis, two research questions can be formulated: (1) Can conceptions of integration be systematized by means of recognition theory categories? (2) Which recognition theory approaches can be found in the descriptions of integration practice of political actors on the administrative level of the city of Berlin? In order to address the first research question, the interconnectedness of the two concepts of integration and recognition in both political and social science contexts will be presented, thus demonstrating the indispensability of systematizing integration practice through recognition theory approaches. Subsequently, by means of a deductive qualitative content analysis, categories are iteratively extracted from recognition theory approaches. For this purpose, four approaches are reconstructed, which paradigmatically differ in their reference to the individual and integration into society (idealism, materialism, psychoanalysis and critical social theory). The extracted categories of recognition are then applied to semi-structured expert interviews conducted by the researcher in order to systematize the concept of integration from the political actors' descriptions of integration practice and to highlight the recognition theory approaches within them. In doing so, it is found that all extracted categories of recognition can be found in the material. On the one hand, the identification of both the idealistic and the psychoanalytic approach in the material results in a theoretical contradiction, since it emphasizes both recognition through equality and recognition through diversity. However, it is presented that this contradiction arises from the purely theoretical perspective on the material and that the empirical overlap is not necessarily contradictory. Further, showing the materialist and the critical theory approach in the material points out a neglect of the political-economic dimension of redistribution, as well as the alienation within the capitalist production process in the practice of integration.