The course examines how welfare systems and welfare institutions have developed and changed over time. It explores the historical processes through which societies have responded to poverty, insecurity, social problems, and changing social conditions, and examines the emergence, expansion, differentiation, and transformation of European welfare states. The course follows major developments from forms of welfare before the modern welfare state, through poor relief, industrialization, social policy, social insurance, social rights, and the expansion of welfare states after 1945, to the transformations and new challenges of contemporary welfare states. Throughout the course, welfare is considered in relation to changing political, economic, social, and institutional contexts, with attention to the different roles of the state, the market, the family, civil society, and individuals.
- Kursleiter/in: Stefan Karl Berger
- Kursleiter/in: Till Alexander Traute