After Austerity

Welfare State Transformation in Europe after the Great Recession

Edited by Peter Taylor-Gooby, Benjamin Leruth, and Heejung Chung

Provides essential material to help understand a rapidly changing field
Provides a multidisciplinary approach
Features contributions from leading figures
Features analysis and considerations for future scenarios

After Austerity

Welfare State Transformation in Europe after the Great Recession

Edited by Peter Taylor-Gooby, Benjamin Leruth, and Heejung Chung

Description

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.

After Austerity

Welfare State Transformation in Europe after the Great Recession

Edited by Peter Taylor-Gooby, Benjamin Leruth, and Heejung Chung

1:Introduction, Peter Taylor-Gooby, Benjamin Leruth, and Heejung Chung
2:Stretching the Limits of Solidarity: The German Case, Jan-Ocko Heuer and Steffen Mau
3:Where Next for the UK Welfare State?, Peter Taylor-Gooby, Benjamin Leruth, and Heejung Chung
4:France at a Crossroads: Societal Challenges to the Welfare State under Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande's Presidential Terms, Benjamin Leruth
5:Changing Scandinavian Welfare States - Which Way Forward?, Jørgen Goul Andersen, Mi Ah Schoyen, and Bjørn Hvinden
6:The Future of the Slovenian Welfare State and Challenges to Solidarity, Maa Filipoviç Hrast and Tatjana Rakar
7:Spain and Italy: Regaining the Confidence and Legitimacy to Advance Social Policy, Ana M. Guillén and Emmanuele Pavolini
8:Welfare Reform in Greece: A Major Crisis, Crippling Debt Conditions, and Stark Challenges Ahead, Maria Petmesidou
9:The Europeanisation of the Welfare State: The Case for a 'Differentiated European Social Model', Benjamin Leruth
Liberalism, Social Investment, Protectionism, and Chauvinism: New Directions for the European Welfare State, Peter Taylor-Gooby, Benjamin Leruth and Peter Taylor-Gooby, and Heejung Chung

After Austerity

Welfare State Transformation in Europe after the Great Recession

Edited by Peter Taylor-Gooby, Benjamin Leruth, and Heejung Chung

Author Information

Edited by Peter Taylor-Gooby, Research Professor of Social Policy, University of Kent, Benjamin Leruth, Research Associate, University of Kent, and Heejung Chung, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy, University of Kent

Peter Taylor-Gooby is a Research Professor of Social Policy at the University of Kent. He is the director of the NORFACE-funded 'Welfare States Futures: Our Children's Europe' (WelfSOC) project. His publications include Britain's Growth Crisis (co-edited with Colin Hay and Jeremy Green, Palgrave, 2015), The Double Crisis of the Welfare State and What Can We Do About It (Palgrave, 2013), and New Paradigms in Public Policy (OUP, 2013).

Benjamin Leruth is an Assistant Professor in Public Administration at the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra, and a Research Associate at the University of Kent. He is working on the NORFACE-funded 'Welfare States Futures: Our Children's Europe' (WelfSOC) project. His publications include The Routledge Handbook of Euroscepticism (co-edited with N. Startin and S. Usherwood, Routledge, 2017).

Heejung Chung is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Kent. He is working on the NORFACE-funded 'Welfare States Futures: Our Children's Europe' (WelfSOC) project.

Contributors:

Jørgen Goul Andersen, Aalborg University.
Heejung Chung , University of Kent.
Ana M. Guillén, University of Oviedo.
Jan-Ocko Heuer, Humboldt University of Berlin.
Maa Filipoviç Hrast, University of Ljubljana.
Bjørn Hvinden, Norwegian Social Research and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences.
Benjamin Leruth, University of Kent.
Steffen Mau, Humboldt University of Berlin.
Emmanuele Pavolini, University of Macerata.
Maria Petmesidou, Democritus University.
Tatjana Rakar, University of Ljubljana.
Mi Ah Schoyen, Centre for Welfare and Labour Research, Oslo, and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences.
Peter Taylor-Gooby, University of Kent.

After Austerity

Welfare State Transformation in Europe after the Great Recession

Edited by Peter Taylor-Gooby, Benjamin Leruth, and Heejung Chung

Reviews and Awards

"the edited volume is a compelling account of the subject. Its theoretical framework is deployed consistently and coherently throughout the book, the chapters are strongly anchored by a historical account, are analytically consistent and provide diverse case-studies and levels of analysis." - António Leitão, International Affairs

"The book contains timely, precious material and analysis that can contribute to the formulation of more socially and economically coherent policies across EU Member States and at the EU level. It is a must read book for policy-makers, the business sector, trade unions and NGOs concerned about the future of democracy and ensuring a sound economy underpinned by an equitable welfare state." - Hedva Sarfati, International Social Security Review