Rethinking European welfare. Transformations of Europe and social policy

Book abstract:

This book explores ways of thinking about the relationship between Europe and social policy. The difficulties of defining the territorial, political and cultural boundaries of Europe that affect social policy are examined. Three interconnected issues for European social policy are identified. Firstly, comparative social policy needs to identify the problems in its own field and analyse how welfare systems produce, reproduce or modify social differences and inequalities that are commensurate with social divisions. Secondly, European social policy needs to analyse welfare policies as forms of cultural text. Thirdly, analysis of the relationship between transformations in welfare systems and transnational realignment needs to take into account how reconstructed welfare affects processes of nation formation and patterns of inclusion and exclusion.

The book has a series of essays divided into three parts. In Part 1, Unsettling Boundaries and Borders, four essays show that boundaries and borders are not natural phenomena and have social causes and social effects connected to social relations in economy and polity, family and nation. The second part examines issues about the established categories and methods of analysis of comparative social policy. Questions asked include the extent to which making race and gender the focal point of a study unsettle the comparative analysis of welfare regimes, and what connections can be made between social inequalities and social differences in the context of European policy making. Part 3 looks at the co-existence of multiple temporalities and spatialities and how these inscribe and are inscribed by welfare policies and practices. Issues examined include how the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion are constructed and legitimated in the organisation of European welfare policies and practices, and in what ways and contexts social identities and solidarity can be formed across the boundaries of European nation states.

The book is aimed at the academic community. The authors are academics from the Social Policy department at the Open University.