Social Policy and Sustainability
While welfare states and associated social policies have been successful in addressing social risks associated with the provision of capitalist growth and increasing their citizens’ wellbeing, they have also contributed to climate emergency and the ecological crisis. We carry out social-policy research of traditional themes such as labour markets, inequality or poverty, but also and particularly in the new circumstances of climate emergency.
Considering different scales from the local to the EU level, we (co-)develop relevant theoretical concepts such as ‘sustainable welfare’ and ‘degrowth/postgrowth’, conduct corresponding empirical research - for example into attitudes towards sustainable welfare and alternative forms of political mobilization. We also identify ‘eco-social’ policies capable of reembedding economy and society in planetary boundaries.
