Thematic Panel 13

Changing Cultural Ideas and Care Policies across Welfare States and Policy Levels

Conveners and Discussants:

Birgit Pfau-Effinger and Ralf Och, University of Hamburg, Germany

Since the 1970s, welfare state policies towards childcare and long-term care (LTC) for older people in need of care (in brief: care policies) have experienced fundamental reforms in many countries. Many scholars have shown that there are substantial differences between welfare states regarding the processes and results of such reforms. In this stream, we want to focus on the role of cultural ideas for the explanation of change and cross-national differences in care policies. Cultural ideas are, for example, related to the ‘ideal’ forms of care and the ideal type of caregiver; the responsibilities of market, state and family in the provision of care; the distribution of responsibility for care policies between different levels of government; deservingness and justice in relation to care, etc.; they are potentially fragmented, contested, contradictory and changeable (Pfau-Effinger 2005). Political actors at all levels of government have to deal with changing and/or conflicting ideas within in order to make sense of social reality and to legitimize political solutions (Béland 2009; Heclo 1975).

In this stream, we aim to discuss different aspects of the relationship between cultural ideas and care policies.

–          Which is the role of cultural ideas for the explanation of change in care policies?

–          How do ideas related to care policies travel between and within different nations?

–          How do political actors deal with conflicting cultural ideas in the field of care policies?

–          What is the role of cultural ideas for the implementation of national care policies at the local level?

–          What methods are suitable to analyse cultural ideas about care, and their changing role in care policies?

Contributions are welcome from social scientists from any discipline relevant to these questions. Abstracts of no more than 300 words shall be sent to transformingcare@vive.dk no later than January 31st, 2019. We will inform you about the result of the evaluation of the abstracts by February 28^th, 2019.

References

Béland, D. (2009) Ideas, institutions, and policy change. Journal of European Public Policy 16(5), pp. 701–718.

Heclo, H. (1974) Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden: From Relief to Income Maintenance, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Pfau-Effinger, B. (2005): Welfare State Policies and the development of care arrangements. European Societies 7(2), 321-347.