300013 Global Social Policy (in engl. Sprache) (Ü) (SoSe 2010)

Contents:

Historically social policy and the welfare state have been projects of (West and North European) nation states, closely linked to the rise of mass democracies. In the absence of a global state and a global democracy, it is not clear what ‘social policy’ could mean on a global scale. Can we can reasonably expect that social policy or even a welfare state develops on the global level? How would global social policy differ from the familiar national forms of social policy?

There is evidence of an emerging ‘global social policy’. In current debates ‘globalisation’ mostly refers to economic globalisation, but international organisations and social movements increasing call for a ‘social dimension of globalisation’. In fact, global politics increasingly attends to ‘social’ issues. Bob Deacon, the author of the first textbook on global social policy (1997), has stipulated a ‘socialisation of global politics’ and a ‘globalisation of social politics’.

The course (which is held in English) addresses key issues of global social policy against the background of a sociological concept of world society. Questions to be investigated include:

• What is ‘global social policy’?
• What is ‘global’ in ‘global social policy’?
• What ideas, actors and institutions are relevant to global social policy?
• How is global social policy governed in the absence of a world state? (‘social global governance’)
• What policies do actors pursue? We will look at several policy areas such as old-age security and poverty.
• The global diffusion of ideas and policies.

Global social policy is a fascinating new field of research, mostly researched by Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian authors. The course will introduce the participants to this field.

The course is also relevant to students with a general interest in world society studies or in global public policy.

Bibliography

English:
Bob Deacon (with Michelle Hulse & Paul Stubbs) 1997: Global social policy. International Organizations and the future of welfare. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage, chapter 1

German:
Lutz Leisering 2008: Soziale Globalisierung? Die Entstehung globaler Sozialpolitik. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 21/2008, S. 21-26
(aus Dokumentenablage downloadbar)