New Directions in Welfare History

This series offers a unique perspective on the history of the welfare state, social policy and related social questions. It brings together research from around the world on a broad spectrum of related issues, from poverty and related questions of social justice and inequality to labour rights, family policy, social security legislation, connections between international development and social policy, and beyond. Books within it seek to highlight broader global, international, transnational and comparative aspects of these issues, while at the same time remaining sensitive to local and national histories. Moreover, they cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries, drawing on history, sociology, politics and law, as well as different theoretical and methodological approaches – from institutionalist perspectives to social history, gender history, economic history and beyond – in order to shed new light on these areas. In this way, the series problematises the nature of ‘the social’ and related questions of social rights, as well as the role of the state, civic organisations and international bodies in addressing these.