Mapping welfare attitudes in East Asia

Welfare attitude research has become increasingly central in comparative welfare studies as welfare systems are under increasing pressures both nationally, regionally and globally as they face economic crises, political changes and increased migration across and within countries – all impacting on citizens’ support for and views of the welfare systems. This has meant that it is of utmost importance to understand not only the sustainability of current welfare systems through analysing citizens’ support for current policies, but also to analyse views of different groups’ deservingness to understand the sustainability of current social policies. Better understanding of the stigmatisation and judgement of particular groups and welfare support can help design and create policies addressing these pressures and increase social cohesion and strengthen social foundations. This book reports on a unique study on welfare attitudes in East-Asia making use of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. East-Asia is a crucial geographical area globally going through large scale social, political and economical changes making it of utmost importance to understand the legitimacy and sustainability of their current and new welfare systems. The book focuses on three dimensions that are crucial to understand welfare attitudes in East-Asia; firstly that we need to emphasise both contextual and individual level factors that influence citizens’ attitudes– and points to the importance of political context and family values when analysing attitudes in East-Asia. Secondly, it takes a deep dive into how family shapes welfare attitudes. Finally, the book is a call to improve our methods when we study comparative welfare attitudes by being more sensitive to cultural differences, the impact of colonialism and gender. The aim is to create methods that encompass and capture cross-cultural variations that influence not only the content, direction and strength of our attitudes and values, but also the importance of gender and who is judged in our attitudes – i.e. and individual, a family or a group.