Introduction
What are social risks and what is social policy?
Social policy = all types of welfare state policy
Social risks = the ‘building blocks’ of welfare states (unemployment, retirement)
- Social risks occur because of a lack of resources/income that is associated with common
events that occur with some sociological regularity.
- Social risks are mostly not individual faults but they are socially ‘produced’ problems that
require a collective solution (welfare state arrangements) to provide welfare.
Social risks and social policy did not happen overnight, their origin is in the way we constructed our
economy and therefor it started with industrial capitalism.
Modern concept of welfare
Welfare = economic well-being (having sufficient resources to ensure ‘the good life’).
Welfare is thus not determined by the fulfillment of physical needs (e.g. food, shelter), but also by the
realization of life chances (allowing one to achieve one’s full potential with personal autonomy), and
the ability to socially participate in society (=without shame).
Welfare (Economic Well-being) is about material well-being but also the social aspects it includes.
Lack of welfare = Situations of poverty, hardship and (extreme) inequality
European Level of Poverty = The poor shall be taken to mean persons, families and groups of
persons whose resources (material, cultural and social) are so limited as to exclude them from the
minimal acceptable way of life in the Member States in which they live (European Council, 1984)
You are considered as the risk factor of being poor when your household income is less than 60% of
the median population income of a specific country-specific.
The Welfare states provide Welfare. But Welfare is provided different around the world by different
welfare providers.
, Family is historically always been important to provide your welfare.
The market labor market (job = money)
State Church, volunteer work, Oxfam, these “companies” aim to provide welfare for free.
Family = informal welfare provision
The Market & State = formal welfare provision
Where does the Welfare state comes from and how does it function?
To answer this question, it is important to go back in history.
- Pre-industrial times
o Many risks (war, no harvest).
o Not or weakly recognized as common public responsibility
o People could trade or sell on markets, but there were no labor markets
People mostly were working on the land.
This doesn’t mean that there was no welfare provision. Families / local communities were the welfare
providers in this period. We also call this solidarity.
- Solidarity = The risks that people have are shared by a group of people that are similar
o families and local communities
tenants-landowners
guilds-mutual societies-friendly societies
These groups provided self-help insurance funds of those who can
- ‘Poor relief’ (social assistance) for beggars, landless workers.
o Charity (catholic)
o Focus on work (protestant)
This implies that poverty is an individual failure.
Poor relief is a control strategy to provide social assistants for the “deserving and undeserving” poor.
- Means testing = investigation of assets to see if you don’t have enough
- Less eligibility = who deserves welfare provision and who is underserving?
o We don’t want to motivate people to stay poor
o We don’t want to keep making use of the welfare provision
o We don’t want to stimulate not going to work
- Good conduct = is the money put into a good use? Not for alcohol gambling etc.
What are social risks and what is social policy?
Social policy = all types of welfare state policy
Social risks = the ‘building blocks’ of welfare states (unemployment, retirement)
- Social risks occur because of a lack of resources/income that is associated with common
events that occur with some sociological regularity.
- Social risks are mostly not individual faults but they are socially ‘produced’ problems that
require a collective solution (welfare state arrangements) to provide welfare.
Social risks and social policy did not happen overnight, their origin is in the way we constructed our
economy and therefor it started with industrial capitalism.
Modern concept of welfare
Welfare = economic well-being (having sufficient resources to ensure ‘the good life’).
Welfare is thus not determined by the fulfillment of physical needs (e.g. food, shelter), but also by the
realization of life chances (allowing one to achieve one’s full potential with personal autonomy), and
the ability to socially participate in society (=without shame).
Welfare (Economic Well-being) is about material well-being but also the social aspects it includes.
Lack of welfare = Situations of poverty, hardship and (extreme) inequality
European Level of Poverty = The poor shall be taken to mean persons, families and groups of
persons whose resources (material, cultural and social) are so limited as to exclude them from the
minimal acceptable way of life in the Member States in which they live (European Council, 1984)
You are considered as the risk factor of being poor when your household income is less than 60% of
the median population income of a specific country-specific.
The Welfare states provide Welfare. But Welfare is provided different around the world by different
welfare providers.
, Family is historically always been important to provide your welfare.
The market labor market (job = money)
State Church, volunteer work, Oxfam, these “companies” aim to provide welfare for free.
Family = informal welfare provision
The Market & State = formal welfare provision
Where does the Welfare state comes from and how does it function?
To answer this question, it is important to go back in history.
- Pre-industrial times
o Many risks (war, no harvest).
o Not or weakly recognized as common public responsibility
o People could trade or sell on markets, but there were no labor markets
People mostly were working on the land.
This doesn’t mean that there was no welfare provision. Families / local communities were the welfare
providers in this period. We also call this solidarity.
- Solidarity = The risks that people have are shared by a group of people that are similar
o families and local communities
tenants-landowners
guilds-mutual societies-friendly societies
These groups provided self-help insurance funds of those who can
- ‘Poor relief’ (social assistance) for beggars, landless workers.
o Charity (catholic)
o Focus on work (protestant)
This implies that poverty is an individual failure.
Poor relief is a control strategy to provide social assistants for the “deserving and undeserving” poor.
- Means testing = investigation of assets to see if you don’t have enough
- Less eligibility = who deserves welfare provision and who is underserving?
o We don’t want to motivate people to stay poor
o We don’t want to keep making use of the welfare provision
o We don’t want to stimulate not going to work
- Good conduct = is the money put into a good use? Not for alcohol gambling etc.
