Join us for this event that will take the form of an open conversation about the new book by Fiona Williams, Social Policy. A Critical and Intersectional Analysis. Following a presentation of the key themes and arguments in the book by Williams, the three discussants will share their perspectives.
Welfare states face profound challenges. Widening economic and social inequalities have been intensified by austerity politics, sharpened by the rise in ethno-nationalism and exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, recent decades have seen a resurgence of social justice activism at both the local and the transnational level. Yet the transformative power of feminist, anti-racist and postcolonial/decolonial thinking has become relatively marginal to core social policy theory, while other critical approaches – around disability, sexuality, migration, age and the environment – have found recognition only selectively.
This book provides a much needed new analysis of this complex landscape, drawing together critical approaches in social policy with intersectionality and political economy.
Meet our speakers and chair
Timo Fleckenstein is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy at LSE. Timo is a political scientist by training and specialises in the comparative analysis of welfare states with a regional focus on Western Europe and East Asia. He has a particular interest in labour market and family policies.
Armine Ishkanian (@Armish15) is Associate Professor of Social Policy and the Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme at LSE. Her research focuses on the relationship between civil society, policy processes, and social transformation. She is co-convenor of the Politics of Inequality research theme based in the International Inequalities Institute.
Isabel Shutes is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy at LSE. Isabel's research interests focus on citizenship, migration, transnationalism and social policies. Her research examines the interactions of migration and social policies; social divisions and inequalities relating to citizenship and immigration status; and the implications for access to and experiences of work, care and social provision.
Fiona Williams is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of Leeds and Honorary Professor at the Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia. She has published widely on gender, race and migration in social policy. Her latest book, Social Policy. A Critical and Intersectional Analysis, examines what the crises of racialized borders, of care, and of climate change mean for social policy. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences and of the British Academy where she edits the Journal of the British Academy. She was awarded an OBE in 2004.
Lucinda Platt (@PlattLucinda) is Professor of Social Policy and Sociology in the Department of Social Policy at LSE.
More about this event
The Department of Social Policy (@LSESocialPolicy) provides top quality international and multidisciplinary research and teaching on social and public policy challenges facing countries across the world. From its foundation in 1912 it has carried out cutting edge research on core social problems, and helped to develop policy solutions.
The International Inequalities Institute (@LSEInequalities) at LSE brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to lead cutting-edge research focused on understanding why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges.
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