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Kettunen, Pauli, Kuhnle, Stein and Yuan, Ren (eds) Reshaping Welfare Institutions in China and the Nordic countries, NordWel Studies in Historical Welfare State Research 7, Helsinki: 2014.

The book is a result of collaboration undertaken in the Sino-Nordic Welfare Research Network SNoW and it is published also in Chinese by Fudan University Press (2014). The book will be launched at Nordic Centre, Fudan University, on 6 June . The book launch is arranged by the Sino-Nordic Welfare Research Network (SNOW) and supported by the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in Shanghai.

You can buy the book in our Bookstore. The book is also published in an electronic version and it is available in Helda, the Digital Repository of the University of Helsinki.

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The so-called Nordic model is a benchmark and concept that has attracted international attention. At the same time, China’s ever-more significant role in the globalized economy has increased international interest in the preconditions of China’s economic growth and associated structural transformations. For their part, the social aspects and impacts of these transformations have inspired discussion, in China, as well as internationally, of various models and paths of welfare policies. Debates on models may focus on persistent path dependencies or on transferable knowledge about best practices to be utilized in policy learning.

This book contributes to this current discussion. Nordic and Chinese researchers on welfare policies discuss normative and institutional characteristics of the Nordic and Chinese societies from a historical perspective. Furthermore, two major areas of current welfare policy in both China and the Nordic countries are examined, namely the problems and solutions associated with migration and labour market mobility, and those associated with the ageing society.

 

 

 

 

A conference about a contested political key concept’s changing interpretations and connotations

The welfare state is a key concept of the modern world. It is widely applied to both past and present societies and policies and it has numerous, over-lapping and conflicting interpretations and connotations. Despite the widespread use of ‘the welfare state’ in popular, academic and political discourses, there are few studies of the changing ways in which it has been understood. The theme of the conference, with speakers from the UK, Hungary, Germany and the five Nordic countries, is the conceptual history of the welfare state and, more generally, the evolution of the language of social policy. This one-day conference is organised by NordWel, the Nordic Centre of Excellence: The Nordic Welfare State – Historical Foundations and Future Challenges, in co-operation with the Department of History, Stockholm University.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Venue: Bergsmannen, Aula Magna, Stockholm University.

Participants have to register, deadline Friday December 6, contact simon.junstrom@historia.su.se.

For more information contact nils.edling@historia.su.se.

PROGRAM

Volumes 5 and 6 of NordWel Studies in Historical Welfare State Research have been published:

Vol 5: All well in the welfare state? Welfare, well-being and the politics of happiness

Edited by Carl Marklund

The aim of this volume is to analyze how the recent attention to subjective well-being and happiness may affect welfare state policies, looking at both Nordic and international experiences. While the Nordic welfare states typically score well in rankings of happiness, the volume asks whether all is well in the welfare state. Rather than assessing whether happiness research manages to capture the multiple factors which underpin subjective well-being, the contributions probe the relationship between the general discourse on subjective well-being and the welfare policies designed to support those members of society who are in greatest need.

Contributors: Bent Greve – Carl Marklund – Varda Soskolne – Katarina Piuva – Anna Alanko – Carl Marklund – Margrét Einarsdóttir – Olli Kangas – Pekka Sulkunen – Trygve Ugland

Vol 6: Retrenchment or renewal? Welfare states in times of crisis

Edited by Guðmundur Jónsson and Kolbeinn Stefánsson

The global economic crisis that began in 2008 has presented serious challenges to welfare states, shaking their financial, social and political foundations in what has become the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the impact of the crisis on social policy and welfare state development in Europe and North America. The varied national experiences of the crisis are examined and put into wider intellectual and historical context. The book poses such questions as the following: What has been the impact of the current crisis on social policy? Has the crisis heralded new phase of entrenchment and austerity, or are there signs of opportunities opening up for progressive social reform?

The volume is collection of 16 chapters by authors from different disciplines within the humanities and the social sciences. It contains both general surveys and country-specific studies dealing with range of issues and provides broad overview of the present crisis and its implications for the future development of the welfare state.

Contributors: Michael Freeden – Christopher Lloyd – Diane Perrons – Daniel Béland – Alex Waddan – Stefán Ólafsson – Mairéad Considine – Fiona Dukelow – Guðmundur Jónsson – Magnús Sveinn Helgason – Matti Hannikainen – Jyl Josephon – Ivett Szalma – Judit Takács – Ingólfur V. Gíslason – Hanna-Kaisa Hoppania – Jane Kelsey – Michael Kuur Sørensen – Vilhjálmur Árnason

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Welfare and welfare states were the focus of discussion at the conference “Shifting to Post-Crisis Welfare States in Europe? – Long Term and Short Term Perspectives’, organized in the Nordic embassies in Berlin by the two Nordic Centres of Excellence (NCoE) on welfare and NordForsk. The conference marked the end of the two Centres, funded by NordForsk from 2006 under the NCoE scheme.

You may look at the NordForsk news article on the conference with live interviews available in Norwegian and English at www.nordforsk.org.

PhD Course:
Analyzing Welfare Institutions, Policies and Politics in China and the Nordic Countries

Venue: Nordic Centre, Fudan University, Shanghai
Date: 17-21 October 2013

Organized by Sino-Nordic Welfare Research Network

See attachment for more information.

Volumes 3 and 4 of NordWel Studies in Historical Welfare State Research have been published:

Volume 3: Migrations and welfare states: Policies, discourses and institutions.
Edited by Heidi Vad Jønsson, Elizabeth Onasch, Saara Pellander and Mats Wickström.

Volume 4: Education, state and citizenship.
Edited by Mette Buchardt, Pirjo Markkola and Heli Valtonen.

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Shifting to Post-Crisis Welfare States in Europe? – Long Term and Short Term Perspectives

International conference, Berlin, June 4 – 5, 2013

New extended dealine: March 1, 2013

Welfare states develop, change and adapt to changing circumstances. Long-term incremental transformations, short-term ruptures and crises have been intertwined in the making and changing of welfare states. Over the last five years welfare states have been hit by a severe financial crisis. Its effects are in various ways related to structural changes associated with globalization, immigration, generational structures, and old and new social risks. The financial crisis has demonstrated international interdependencies and made the problems concerning the democratic legitimacy of national welfare states and European integration visible.

Against this background the conference Shifting to Post-Crisis Welfare States in Europe? – Long Term and Short Term Perspectives brings together distinguished academics from across the world to discuss whether we are going through a tough time – as a phase in the normal development and adaptation of welfare states – or whether we are facing a complete transformation or even a decline of the welfare state as we know it.

The format of the conference is a combination of plenary keynotes given by some of the most central welfare researchers of today and paper sessions where the work of well-established researchers, post-doctoral researchers and PhD students are discussed. We open up for papers on a variety of topics related to the long- and short-term transformations of welfare states

Key note speakers: Peter Hall (Harvard University, US), Kimberly Morgan (George Washington University, US), Ann Orloff (Northwestern University, US), Bruno Palier (Director of Research, CNRS, Sciences Po, FR), Joakim Palme (University of Uppsala, SE), Chiara Saraceno (Social Science Research Centre Berlin (WZB), DE & Collegio Carlo Alberto, Turin, IT)

FULL CALL FOR PAPERS WITH PROGRAMME

Abstracts are submitted to the coordinator Heidi Haggrén (heidi.haggren@helsinki.fi). Abstracts should be about 200 words and sent as a Word or PDF attachment.

Deadlines:

Abstract deadline is March 1, 2013 (extended dead-line).
Successful applicants will be informed by March 15, 2013.
Deadline for full papers is May 10, 2013.

For further information please visit conference website https://blogs.helsinki.fi/nord-wel/iwec2013/ or contact coordinator Heidi Haggrén (heidi.haggren@helsinki.fi).

First Call for Papers:

Shifting to Post-Crisis Welfare States in Europe? – Long Term and Short Term Perspectives

International conference, Berlin, June 4 – 5, 2013

The conference brings together distinguished academics from across the world to discuss whether we are going through a tough time – as a phase in the normal development and adaptation of welfare states – or whether we are facing a complete transformation or even a decline of the welfare state as we know it.

The format of the conference is a combination of plenary keynotes given by some of the most central welfare researchers of today and paper sessions where the work of well-established researchers, post-doctoral researchers and PhD students are discussed. We open up for papers on a variety of topics related to the long- and short-term transformations of welfare states:

For participation please send an abstract to coordinator Heidi Haggrén  (heidi.haggren@helsinki.fi) by February 10, 2013. Abstracts  should be about 200 words
and sent as a Word or PDF attachment.  Successful applicants will be informed by March 1, 2013. Deadline for  full papers is May 10, 2013.

The conference takes place at the closing phase of the Nordic Centres of Excellence Programme on Welfare Research funded by NordForsk and is arranged in collaboration between NordForsk and the two Centres of Excellence NordWel (The Nordic Welfare State – Historical Foundations and Future Challenges  and REASSESS (Reassessing the Nordic Welfare Model).

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NCoE NordWel and REASSESS organize a joint international summer school in Reykjavik, 15-20 August 2013.

We invite PhD students from different disciplinary backgrounds both within and outside the Nordic countries to participate in the discussion on the development of welfare states, their preconditions, present status and how we ought to study them.

Participants who complete the summer school successfully are credited with 6 ECTS credits.

The course fee is 150 euros. Accommodation is financed by the organizing centres. A limited number of travel grants will be available.

Applicants are asked to submit an abstract (max 400 words) for a paper and a short biography (including a list of publications) by e-mail no later than 10 March 2013 to our coordinator Heidi Haggrén, heidi.haggren@helsinki.fi.

For inquiries, please contact coordinator Heidi Haggrén
(heidi.haggren@helsinki.fi, tel. +358-9-19124958).

CALL FOR PAPERS

Co-operatives and the Social Question
The co-operative movement in northern and eastern Europe (1880-1950)

Edited by Mary Hilson, Pirjo Markkola and Ann-Catrin Östman

Published by Welsh Academic Press 2012
ISBN: 9781860570551

“Whilst co-operative ideas had been discussed in all the Nordic countries from at least the 1860s, it was not until the 1880s that the first permanent organisations appeared. Of interest to students of both Scandinavian & Nordic Studies and Co-operative Studies and published to mark the UN International Year of the Co-operative in 2012, Co-operatives and the Social Question is a groundbreaking volume that:

• provides, for the first time English, a study of the development of the co-operative movement in the Nordic countries and eastern Europe.
• presents a unique comparative transnational perspective on the spread and development of co-operative ideas in these regions, and the links between them.
• offers a new perspective on late nineteenth and early twentieth-century debates on the social question, modernisation and the foundations of the welfare state.
•  is a wide-ranging co-operative history, ranging from the urban consumer co-operative societies of Sweden to the peasant organisations of Hungary and Galicia in contrast to previous studies that have tended to focus exclusively on either consumer or agricultural co-operation.

A valuable and timely contribution to the study of the international co-operative movement in the English-language , Co-operatives and the Social Question not only provides an overview of growth of co-operatives in those nations, but also traces the regional transnational spread of co-operative ideas and practices and the importance context of the moral and modernising aims of co-operation.” (Welsh Academic Press)

Mary Hilson is Senior Lecturer in Scandinavian History at University College, London. Pirjo Markkola is Professor of Finnish History at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. Ann-Catrin Ostman is a Senior Lecturer at Abo Akademi University, Finland.

 

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