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After Austerity: Welfare State Transformation in Europe after the Great Recession

Taylor-Gooby, Peter and Leruth, Benjamin and Chung, Heejung, eds. (2017) After Austerity: Welfare State Transformation in Europe after the Great Recession. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 256 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-879027-3. (doi:10.1093/oso/9780198790266.001.0001) (KAR id:66114)

Abstract

European welfare states are undergoing profound change, driven by globalization, technical changes, and population ageing. More immediately, the aftermath of the Great Recession and unprecedented levels of immigration have imposed additional pressures. This book examines welfare state transformations across a representative range of European countries and at the EU level, and considers likely new directions in social policy. It reviews the dominant neo-liberal austerity response and discusses social investment, fightback, welfare chauvinism, and protectionism.

It argues that the class solidarities and cleavages that shaped the development of welfare states are no longer powerful. Tensions surrounding divisions between old and young, women and men, immigrants and denizens, and between the winners in a new, more competitive, world and those who feel left behind are becoming steadily more important. European countries have entered a period of political instability and this is reflected in policy directions. Austerity predominates nearly everywhere, but patterns of social investment, protectionism, neo-Keynesian intervention, and fightback vary between countries. The volume identify areas of convergence and difference in European welfare state futures in this up-to-date study - essential reading to grasp the pace and directions of change.

Item Type: Edited book
DOI/Identification number: 10.1093/oso/9780198790266.001.0001
Projects: Our Children's Europe: WelfSoc
Uncontrolled keywords: Welfare State; Europe; Change; Policy; Politics; Future
Subjects: H Social Sciences
J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Funders: [UNSPECIFIED] NORFACE
Depositing User: Peter Taylor-Gooby
Date Deposited: 22 Feb 2018 13:08 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Feb 2021 13:53 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/66114 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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