Neoliberalism has transformed work, welfare, and democracy. However, its impacts, and its future, are more complex than we often imagine. Alongside growing inequality, social spending has been rising. Medicare was entrenched alongside privatization. How do we understand this contradictory politics, and what opportunities are there to advance equality? This book takes the three big drivers of inequality – conditionality of benefits, marketisation of services and financialisation of the life course– to explore how inequality has been contested. Alongside the rise of the market, it reveals the building blocks of a more egalitarian order and opportunities for new models of solidarity based on an ethic of care.

Since the 1990s, and increasingly so, European welfare states have been undergoing fundamental change. The analysis presented in this book shows that these changes may be interpreted as a paradigmatic shift of European societies, since fundamental concepts, principles and societal effects of welfare institutions have been redefined, reset and rearranged. Given contemporary institutional, economic, social and cultural changes, current post-industrial forms of welfare states are characterised by a very different logic than that which prevailed some 30 years ago. This logic, while being ambivalent in certain areas, brings about highly modified societies. This book provides an understanding and identification of different facets of this paradigmatic shift, in order to contribute to the bigger picture of welfare state and societal change. Rather than referring to persisting differences in welfare state regimes, which are in parts identified here also, it directs its attention towards new and cross-country and cross-regime developments and tensions. The interpretations of welfare state change found in other studies, thereby, are enhanced in original ways. The theoretically-based empirical analysis of welfare state change departs from the generally accepted insight that mature democratic welfare states depend on social cohesion. The central question of this study, therefore, is how emancipatory past and present welfare state regulations are. The results show that the mechanisms, visibility and lines of social inequality differ significantly after three decades of partly fundamental reforms characterized by marketization, fragmentation and equalisation of welfare provision.

Multidimensional Inequalities is a deep dive into the historical contexts and contemporary realities that negatively influence society and its structures. It is often overlooked that inequality is not just about income and wealth but rather a broad spectrum of intersecting factors. This book focuses on each aspect individually, analysing its effect on welfare systems, and informs about the instruments available to reduce inequality.

This book explores generation as both a reference to family or kinship structures, and a reference to cohorts or age sets. The principal objective is branching out this two-part concept through studies of tensions and solidarity within and between generations of advanced and robust welfare states. Answering key questions using multiple disciplinary approaches, the book considers how generations challenge advanced and robust welfare states; how new and young generations are affected by living in an advanced welfare state with older generations; how tensions or solidarity are understood when facing challenges; and what the key characteristics are of certain generation types. It contributes to the development of a more comprehensive generation approach within social sciences by developing the concept of generation by exploring different challenges to the welfare state such as migration, digitalization, environmental damages, demands for sustainability, and marginalization. Highlighting the escalating tensions and altered versions of solidarity between generations, this book shows how a comprehensive concept of a generation can create new insights into how we collectively coordinate and resolve challenges through the welfare state. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of social policy, sociology, political science, and social anthropology.

The volume explores the overlapping inequalities within welfare states considering temporal and spatial dimensions. It does so by examining the institutional and organizational frameworks as well as the social practices that underpin the welfare states. Informed by this perspective, the volume provides a critical reflection on the phenomenon of intersectional inequalities highlighting that inequalities do not only overlap but also have the potential to mask each other. The volume, therefore, adopts a critical and process-focused approach to intersectionality. The contributions discuss the extent to which selective inequality factors have emerged in various institutional fields, organizational settings and society in general. They provide insights into the realms of health, education and social services, focus on the relationship between paid and unpaid care work, examine state practices of criminalization, and analyse various forms of activist positions, social movements and political resistance. The volume demonstrates the potential of intersectional analyses while also reflecting on the methodological challenges and addressing the gaps and limitations of intersectional perspectives. Readers across the social sciences, and particularly those interested in the issues of complex inequalities and welfare, will find this book valuable.

This book analyzes how recent welfare state transformations across advanced democracies have shaped social and economic disparities. The authors observe a trend from a compensatory paradigm towards supply oriented social policy, and investigate how this phenomenon is linked to distributional outcomes. How – and how much – have changes in core social policy fields alleviated or strengthened different dimensions of inequality? The authors argue that while the market has been the major cause of increasing net inequalities, the trend towards supply orientation in most social policy fields has further contributed to social inequality. The authors work from sociological and political science perspectives, examining all of the main branches of the welfare state, from health, education and tax policy, to labour market, pension and migration policy. /div

Richer nations are happier, yet economic growth doesn't increase happiness. This paradox is explained by the Hidden Wealth of Nations - the extent to which citizens get along with other independently drives both economic growth and well-being. Much of this hidden wealth is expressed in everyday ways, such as our common values, the way we look after our children and elderly, or whether we trust and help strangers. It is a hidden dimension of inequality, and helps to explain why governments have found it so hard to reduce gaps in society. There are also deep cracks in this hidden wealth, in the form of our rising fears of crime, immigration and terror. Using a rich variety of international comparisons and new analysis, the book explores what is happening in contemporary societies from value change to the changing role of governments, and offers suggestions about what policymakers and citizens can do about it.

Concepts of social capital play a well-established role in a number of academic disciplines and continue to grow in popularity in the discourses of the sciences, as well as those of civil society and social practice. As an element that is fundamental and constitutive of various forms of societal coexistence and wellbeing, social capital apparently generates positive effects. However, it also contributes to inequalities and unequal distribution of power, and is, consequently, a rather controversial subject. This collection of essays represents reflections and case studies from all over the world. They step out of well-known paths of discourse and discuss the phenomenon of social capital in manifold ways and from new perspectives. In addition to rethinking social capital theoretically and methodologically, the authors focus especially on issues and challenges of its practical application. The contributions come from researchers and practitioners of different backgrounds including sciences such as sociology, philosophy, social geography, economics, health studies, history, interpersonal communication studies and cultural studies, as well as social practice in development aid. The volume will appeal to a broad audience from diverse disciplines, both academic and practical.

The American welfare state is often blamed for exacerbating social problems confronting African Americans while failing to improve their economic lot. Michael K. Brown contends that our welfare system has in fact denied them the social provision it gives white citizens while stigmatizing them as recipients of government benefits for low income citizens. In his provocative history of America's "safety net" from its origins in the New Deal through much of its dismantling in the 1990s, Brown explains how the forces of fiscal conservatism and racism combined to shape a welfare state in which blacks are disproportionately excluded from mainstream programs.Brown describes how business and middle class opposition to taxes and spending limited the scope of the Social Security Act and work relief programs of the 1930s and the Great Society in the 1960s. These decisions produced a welfare state that relies heavily on privately provided health and pension programs and cash benefits for the poor. In a society characterized by pervasive racial discrimination, this outcome, Michael Brown makes clear, has led to a racially stratified welfare system: by denying African Americans work, whites limited their access to private benefits as well as to social security and other forms of social insurance, making welfare their "main occupation." In his conclusion, Brown addresses the implications of his argument for both conservative and liberal critiques of the Great Society and for policies designed to remedy inner-city poverty.