This MA-seminar will deal with the things people “do” to stay alive and well, not only as individuals, but also as groups, communities, and national or global citizens. We will take a closer look at the development and change of diverse (gendered) welfare practices and institutions since the 19th century – both on the individual, the national and the transnational or global level.
Looking at different threads – from health care and old age protection, to housing and poverty/unemployment prevention – we will critically examine existing narratives about the modernity of the “European welfare state and put these narratives into global perspective.
This seminar will focus on changing practices and patterns of “caring for oneself and others”, by shedding light on the various actors across the globe that pushed for new social security arrangements “from below”, hence altering social arrangements and relations between “the state” and non-state players (organizations, firms, families and individuals) in social affairs. |
