"Activation" has become the central guiding principle of the transformation of Western welfare states, although it is becoming apparent that the outcomes of "activation" policies are largely devastating. From a social pedagogical perspective, the current socio-political discourse on activation, which is primarily economically oriented, contains a variety of options where genuinely pedagogical intervention forms are only vaguely defined. The glossary currently addresses key terms and positions as well as questions important references of social pedagogical activation in their core statements. In the analysis of the social pedagogical quality of the individual terms, it becomes clear that their usage in political discourse does not align perfectly.