What is the past, present and future of welfare states? In recent decades, the emergence of new social risks and structural pressures have stimulated processes of social policy recalibration.
Against this backdrop, Social Investment (SI) has emerged as a policy approach for shaping social policy in post-industrial societies, combining the old goal of social solidarity with fiscal sustainability and a focus on human capabilities throughout the life course. The aim of this working group is to explore emerging socio-economic and institutional trends and how welfare systems adapt to these changes.
The working group is run by the team of the WellSIre project, which is led by Professor Anton Hemerijck and funded by the European Research Council. With the working group, we seek to encourage debate on social investment research, ideas and policies.
During the bi-monthly meetings, the group will discuss research on the various aspects of welfare recalibration towards social investment, including: ageing and life-course approaches; actor-centered approaches and the politics of social policy change; comparative welfare regimes within and beyond Europe; the political economy of ideas; the nexus between European integration, fiscal responsibility and welfare states; party politics and electoral competition. The working group convenes once or twice a month, usually on Wednesdays.
We invite students, scholars and practitioners – also from outside the EUI community – to engage with us in a vivid discussion on social investment and related topics. Participants will have the opportunity to present their research (whether finished or in progress) and receive feedback on it. We invite both internal and external speakers to our meetings.
If you wish to join the SIWG, please write to us at [email protected], to be added to the mailing list.