Towards A Social Investment Welfare State?Ideas, Policies and Challenges

Abstract

Abstract Since the late 1990s, new ideas and strategies concerning the role and shape of the Welfare State have been formulated. All these analyses and policy developments point towards a similar policy logic based on ‘social investment’. The aim of this book is to map out the contours of this new perspective, both at the ideational level and in terms of the policies implemented throughout Europe. The book also aims at assessing the achievements, as well as the shortcomings, of this strategy. In doing so it provides a critical analysis of the content and coherence of the social investment ideas and policies, and opens up for a discussion of the new challenges that Europe is facing — such as population ageing, the impact of the financial crisis, environmental issues — and of whether the social investment perspective can provide adequate responses to these challenges.