University of Twente Student Theses
Welfare for Aftermaths: Mapping ideational common ground in the European Union
Bodenmüller, G.H.S. (2018) Welfare for Aftermaths: Mapping ideational common ground in the European Union.
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| Abstract: | The present work investigates ideational developments around the welfare state in the European Union against a political background of austerity and polarisation. Building on the debate of social policy paradigms, the research examines post-financial crisis changes in social policy and explores avenues for political convergence in order to understand the potential for retaining social welfare in the European reform agenda. It intends to reduce the academic gap in the assessment of values within contemporary social policy enterprises. The study theorises the politics and discourses of welfare reform and pinpoints the normative logic of social policy using an analytical framework formed by the ideas of social citizenship, social justice, social equality, decommodification and solidarity. The discursive analysis is based on extensive academic literature and primary documents of the European Commission, Europarties and organised opinions from civil society. The research suggests that social advocates could respond to neoliberal discourse distortions with a discursive strategy: rebranding traditional social expenditure under a social investment label can work as common ground to form political coalitions against polarisation and to advance a European social agenda. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 88 social and public administration, 89 political science |
| Programme: | Public Administration MSc (60020) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/75169 |
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