The ‘Social Construction Framework’ which addresses the relationship between policy design and the construction of target groups is one of the central approaches within the field of policy theories. Yet, despite its name, the approach builds on several naturalist premises, and its analytical components are informed by principles rooted in positivist methodologies. Against this background, this article conducts a thorough critique of the framework’s constructivist shortcomings, and it develops a strictly constructivist and interpretive reading of its core arguments. The analytical value is substantiated by presenting original empirical research on the meaning of the ‘middle class’ in German welfare policy. We will show that, firstly, group construction is not only a matter of positive or negative evaluation, but more fundamentally an act of boundary-drawing, with differently constructed middle classes enabling different welfare policies. Secondly, we will show that target group constructions are always entangled with the construction of the group’s outside, leading to the stabilisation and legitimisation of hierarchies between the middle class and ‘the others’ in society. Thirdly, we demonstrate that the power of a target group is also a matter of social construction, with the middle class obtaining its hegemonic position from an order of knowledge that equates the middle with ‘the normal’ and ‘the common good’. Based on these insights, the article raises a more general plea against the translation of constructivism into a middle-range theory of the policy process and instead emphasises the ontological and epistemological distinctiveness of strict constructivism and interpretive methodologies.

中文翻译：

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回收建构主义：对“社会建构框架”的解释性阅读

解决政策设计和目标群体建设之间关系的“社会建设框架”是政策理论领域的核心方法之一。然而，尽管它的名字，该方法建立在几个自然主义的前提之上，其分析成分是由植根于实证主义方法论的原则提供信息的。在此背景下，本文对该框架的建构主义缺点进行了彻底的批判，并对其核心论点进行了严格的建构主义和解释性阅读。通过对德国福利政策中“中产阶级”的含义进行原创的实证研究，证实了分析价值。我们将证明，首先，群体建设不仅是正面或负面评价的问题，但更根本的是一种划界行为，不同结构的中产阶级支持不同的福利政策。其次，我们将表明，目标群体的构建总是与群体外部的构建纠缠在一起，从而导致社会中中产阶级与“他者”之间的等级制度的稳定和合法化。第三，我们证明目标群体的权力也是社会建构的问题，中产阶级从将中产阶级等同于“正常”和“共同利益”的知识秩序中获得其霸权地位。基于这些见解，