scholarly journals The Western Middle Classes under Stress: Welfare State Retrenchments, Globalization, and Declining Returns to Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 85-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Луи Шовель
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Returns To Education ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Wage Earner ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1960S

Citation: Chauvel L. (2020) The Western Middle Classes under Stress: Welfare State Retrenchments, Globalization, and Declining Returns to Education. Mir Rossii, vol. 29, no 4,pp. 85–111. DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2020-29-4-85-111 Following the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Gustav Schmoller before him, the multipolarity of the middle classes between higher and lower, and between cultural and economic capitalsis well acknowledged. This old vision is useful to understand the “middle classes adrift” of the last 20 years in France and Continental Europe. The expansion of the “new wage earner middle class” of the 1960s to 1990s is now an old dream of the welfare state expansion of Western societies, and the European social structure now faces a trend of  repatrimonialization”, meaning a U-turn towards a decline in the value of mid-qualified work and an expansion of the return to the inheritance of family assets. This paper addresses three main points. First, a new description of repatrimonialization is useful in the specific European context of middle-class societies. We need a redefinition of the system of middle classes (plural) in the context of the construction and decline of strong welfare states. Second, there are three ruptures in the social trends of the ‘wage earner society’ of the 1960s to 1990s. In this period, economic growth, social homogenization and social protection were major contextual elements of the expansion of ‘the new middle class,’ based on educationalmeritocracy, the valorization of credentialed skills, and the expansion of the average wage compared to housing and capital assets (‘depatrimonialization’). After the 1990s, the rupture and reversal of these trends, with ‘stagnation’, ‘new inequalities’ and ‘social uncertainty’ as new trends, generated a backlash in the “middle class society”. Third, I analyze the demographic and social consequences of these new trends in terms of the shrinking of the middle classes in a context where the inheritance of assets and resources changed the previous equilibrium. Finally, I highlight the importance of addressing the problem of social stability when large strata of the middle class have less interest in the maintenance of the social order.

Narrowing the gap: the middle class and the modernization of welfare in Italy

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 116-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remo Siza
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Italian Society ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Theoretical Approaches

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer a contribution to our understanding of the changing relations of the middle classes with the Italian welfare state. The paper argues that the new interplay between public and private welfare is based on a very simplified analysis of Italian society. Design/methodology/approach The paper aims to integrate a variety of different theoretical approaches. The paper makes extensive use of the EU-SILC database, as well as the recently updated historic series of consumer studies undertaken by the Italian National Institute of Statistics. The data used in the paper were also drawn from the biennial cross-sectional Survey on Household Income and Wealth carried out by the Bank of Italy. Findings The analysis suggests that the problems of Italian society include not only a high incidence of poverty, but also increasing financial constraints for households placed between the established middle class and people in conditions of persistent poverty. The current public-private mix in service delivery appears less and less capable of protecting this social stratum against the growing risk of instability across all life domains, let alone of creating opportunities and fostering social mobility. Originality/value The paper explores some ways in which current politics of welfare have been designed with the view of fundamentally changing the welfare regime. It highlights how the public and private welfare mix has been purposefully organized in order to introduce a new model of social protection that aims to overcome certain specific characteristics of Southern European welfare states. It examines the sustainability of this model compared to the real living conditions of the Italian middle classes.

In Search of Security: Migrant Workers' Understandings, Experiences and Expectations Regarding ‘Social Protection’ in Ireland

2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
VIRPI TIMONEN ◽  
MARTHA DOYLE
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Protection System ◽  
Migrant Populations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractWhile both migration and welfare states are popular topics of research, the intersection between them is rarely studied. In this article, we present the findings of a study that explored migrant workers' conceptualisation of ‘social protection’ and their relationship with the Irish welfare state. The main foci of analysis for the purposes of this article are the migrant workers' understandings, experiences and expectations regarding their social protection and the welfare state. While our findings hint at the presence of many migrant workers who are very poorly anchored into and even completely detached from the Irish welfare state, they also reveal complex and ambivalent attitudes towards component parts of the social protection system. While the findings presented here stem from a qualitative study in a single country, we hypothesise that similar patterns can be identified among the migrant populations in other, particularly liberal, welfare states.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Pestieau ◽  
Mathieu Lefebvre
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Divide

This final chapter recaps the main problems facing the welfare states in Europe and insists on the need for reform. The acquired right issue but also the opposing views on what should be a welfare state too often tend to slow down the implementation of changes. Also, the two main challenges—coping with the digital revolution and fighting the social divide—are addressed. Faced with dramatic changes in how people work, social protection has to adapt. Reducing the gap between haves and have-nots will also be crucial for social policies and this may not be solved just by cash transfers.

The Truncated German Social Investment Turn

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Seeleib-Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
First Century ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Political Determinants ◽  
The Social ◽  
State Regime ◽  
Policy Transformations ◽  
Veto Points

Traditionally Germany has been categorized as the archetypical conservative welfare state, a categorization not systematically questioned in much of the comparative welfare state regime literature. For many scholars Germany was largely stuck and unable to reform its coordinated market economy and welfare state arrangements at the turn of the twenty-first century, due to a large number of veto points and players and the dominance of two ‘welfare state parties’. More recent research has highlighted a widening and deepening of the historically institutionalized social protection dualism, whilst at the same time significant family policy transformations, which can be considered as partially in line with the social investment paradigm, have been emphasized. This chapter sets out to sketch the main policy developments and aims to identify political determinants of social policy change in Germany.

scholarly journals The social doctrine of the catholic church as a foundation for the emergence of the legal regulation in the area of social protection in Europe

2020 ◽  
pp. 353-357
Author(s):  
Mykhailo Shumylo
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Holy See ◽  
Social Doctrine ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Catholic Church

The social doctrine of the Catholic Church is an indication of the active involvement of the Church in disseminating the ideas ofthe welfare state and it reflects its attempts to establish ideals of the welfare state through an external influence on the ideology of countriesthat belong to Christendom.Furthermore, one cannot ignore the fact that encyclicals had a direct or indirect influence on the adoption of the first social protectionacts in Catholic Europe where encyclicals played an important role.As a result, the Holy See aligned itself with the labour movement.Considering the fact that papal encyclicals covered the entire Catholic World, these documents can be viewed as an example ofinternational soft law.The first social rights, principles, and values in the area of social protection were enshrined in the encyclicals.Social rights belong to second-generation human rights the legal basis for which comprises international instruments adoptedafter the Second World War (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Convention for the Protection of Human Rightsand Fundamental Freedoms (1950), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), the European SocialCharter (Revised) (1965–1996), the European Code of Social Security (1964), meaning 50 years after these rights were enshrined inpapal encyclicals.There is an indisputable fact that has still not been discussed in scientific research on social protection and according to whichthe social doctrine of the Catholic Church can be viewed as an inherent part of the process of occurrence, formation, and developmentof social protection, and it can be regarded as an ideological framework, a source of social rights and principles of social protection.Considering the above-mentioned findings, the social doctrine of the Catholic Church can be defined as the body of legislationadopted by the Holy See regarding the status and development of social and labour rights, their place in a person’s life and in publiclife. Papal encyclicals form the basis of that legislation and they are addressed to believers, bishops, and archbishops.

scholarly journals Social innovation as a policy response to restructure the welfare state

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 269-276
Author(s):  
Doğa Başar Sariipek ◽  
Gökçe Cerev ◽  
Bora Yenihan
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The State ◽  
Welfare Provision ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
The Welfare State

The focus of this paper is the interaction between social innovation and restructuring welfare state. Modern welfare states have been reconfiguring their welfare mixes through social innovation. This includes a productive integration of formal and informal actors with support and leading role of the state. This collaboration becomes significantly important since it means the integration of not only the actors, but also their capabilities and resources in today’s world where new social risks and new social challenges have emerged and no actor can overcome these by its own. Therefore, social innovation is a useful tool in the new role sharing within the welfare mix in order to reach higher levels of satisfaction and success in welfare provision. The main point here is that this is not a zero-sum competition; gaining more power of the actors other than the state – the market, civil society organisations and the family – does not necessarily mean that the state lost its leading role and power. This is rather a new type of cooperation among actors and their capabilities as well as their resources in welfare provision. In this sense, social innovation may contribute well to the debates over the financial crisis of the welfare state since it may lead to the more wisely use of existing resources of welfare actors. Thanks to social innovative programs, not only the NGOs, but also market forces as well as citizens are more active to access welfare provisions and social protection in the broadest sense. Thus, social innovative strategies are definitely a solid step taken towards “enabling” or “active” welfare state.

scholarly journals THE EUROPEAN WELFARE STATE REGIMES: QUESTIONING THE TYPOLOGY DURING THE CRISIS

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 577-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kosta JOSIFIDIS ◽  
John B. HALL ◽  
Novica SUPIC ◽  
Emilija BEKER PUCAR
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Strong Influence ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
European Welfare State ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Welfare State Regimes ◽  
The Eu

This paper examines the nature of changes within the EU–15 welfare states affected by the 2008 crisis. We try to answer the question of whether the differences that exist among different welfare state regimes, according to prevailing welfare state typologies, lead to different responses to the consequences of the crisis. Welfare state regimes are the result of different institutional perceptions of social risks hence it is realistic to expect specific responses to the effects of crisis among different welfare state regimes, and similar responses among the countries that belong to the same welfare state regimes. In order to recognize convergent vs. divergent processes, we perform a comparative analysis of the dynamics of the key welfare state determinants of the EU–15 countries, grouping according to welfare state regimes, in the pre-crisis and crisis periods. The results indicate that institutional rigidity and inherent inertia has remained a key factor of convergent welfare state processes in countries that belong to the Social Democratic and Corporatist welfare state regimes. Deviations from such a course are the most evident in the Mediterranean welfare state regimes, especially in Greece and Portugal where austerity measures have been formulated under the strong influence of the Troika.

Costruire per il ceto medio a Milano. Note sulla filiera imprenditoriale

TERRITORIO ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 88-94
Author(s):  
Luca Gaeta
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Property Market ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Construction Companies ◽  
Land Owners ◽  
The Social ◽  
City Construction ◽  
The City

The precise boundaries of the supply chain for the production of housing for the middle classes in Milan during the boom years are not clearly defined. And yet its activity is of crucial importance to an understanding of the social and tangible forms of the middle class city. Construction companies constituted the key link in relations between land owners, clients, architects and end users of the asset that is a home. This paper offers a provisional picture which documents the firms most active in the sector, the prevailing operating practices and two businessmen who were interviewed. The conclusions identify two lines for further research into the middle class city: the role of non-professional mediators in the property market and the high concentration of up-market new housing construction within the ‘cerchia dei bastioni' (inner part of the city).

The Middle Classes in Non-Western Societies: Inner Dynamics and Self-Assertion Perspective

2015 ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
A. Volodin
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The State ◽  
Western World ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
The Social

The present article focuses on the entity of middle classes in non-Western societies. The social formation of this kind is a relatively new phenomenon. As far as the modern Western societies are concerned, the social and political “materialization” of the above-mentioned entity has covered the period of no less than five centuries. The middle class in modern transitional societies began to emerge quite recently, with a few notable exceptions, after gaining sovereignty. That is one of the reasons why political systems in the non-Western world are mostly fragile and susceptible to instability of different kinds and origins. The so called “Arab awakening” gives a vivid example for the “underdevelopment” of indigenous middle classes. Whilst in the advanced industrial societies middle classes were (and are) the building blocks of social structure, economic and political development, elite recruitment, etc., among the non-Western societies (with the salient exception of the North-East Asia) the process of the middle class institutionalization as well as its economic and political self-assertion is still under way, somewhere at the initial stage of development. Comparing various non-Western societies from the middle class inner dynamics as well as self-assertion perspective, the author concludes that in the ultimate analysis, the maturity of this process is dependent on the pro-active and creative role of the State. The latter serves as the main driving force of the middle class consolidation and the instrument of political and economic systems for increasing and advancing development. The cases of India, on one hand, and Indonesia, on the other, demonstrate convincingly that the State remains the leading institution of the society able to accelerate economic growth and development, but also to stimulate the emergence and socio-political assertion of the middle class in contemporary non-Western world.

The Lady Lisle

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Ifill
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Class Child

The Lady Lisle features two near-identical boys from different ends of the social spectrum. The possibility of altering the development of their inborn natures through upbringing and education is explored and contested when the two are swapped by the villain, Major Varney. The upper-class child is sent to a middle-class school where he is raised in such a way as to negate detrimental qualities which initially seemed innate. Contrastingly, the lower-class child, James, impersonates the true heir and proves to be selfish, violent and eventually murderous, like his father. Yet it is never entirely clear to what extent James’s behaviour is due to heredity or to his emotionally abusive upbringing. A shift in narrative tone is identified which moves from making allowances for James due to ‘nurture’ towards castigating him as bad by ‘nature’. In this way Braddon raises questions about the malleability or fixity of the personality, about how we define, recognise and value naturalness, but ultimately combines the forces of education and hereditary degeneracy in order to segregate the lower classes, and to bring the morally upright middle classes together with the affluent upper classes.

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