Social Policy and Territorial Restructuring: Taking Stock After 30 Years
Date: Thursday 17 May 2012 - 10:00 to 17:00
Place: European Studies Centre, St Antony's College
For the last forty years in Western Europe, major changes have occurred at the intersection of welfare state transformation and state territorial restructuring. In the course of European integration, internal state changes and regional mobilizations, social policy responsibilities have been transferred to subnational levels of government, in particular regions. It triggered intense research in countries where devolution, regionalization or quasi-federalization took place, like the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and France. The main endeavours have been to unravel the outcomes of regional governments' social policy-making on social policy itself, and on the spatial boundaries of social citizenship. How different is regional social policy from previously state-led social policy, and how divergent are regional policies from each other? And has regional social policy led to challenge the national boundaries of (certain dimensions of) social protection?
Existing literature points at mixed signals. Taking stock of existing research results, the workshop aims to further develop our understanding of Western European states' territorial restructuring through regional social policy-making. How has regional governments' social policy impacted on the spatial boundaries of social citizenship across Europe? Do regional governments use their increasing policy autonomy and growing room for maneuver to develop policies that challenge national boundaries? Do they produce territorial fragmentation by making policies that differentiate various regional regimes?
Programme
10:00-10:30: Introduction
10:30-11:30: Prof Maurizio Ferrera, University of Milan Restructuring the European Social Model
11: 45-12:45: Ms Heather Elliott and Prof Scott L. Greer, University of Michigan Overcoming methodological nationalism in comparative welfare state studies
14:00-15:00: Dr Claire Dupuy, University of Oxford and Université catholique de Louvain Do regional policies challenge national boundaries? Path-dependent strategies of legitimacy seeking and territorial restructuring.
15:00-16:00: Prof Alistair Cole, Cardiff University Social Policy and territorial restructuring in France and the UK
