Loading Events

Josef Hien (EUI)

11 October 2013 @ 14:00

 

  • Past event

Details

Date:
11 October 2013
Time:
14:00
Event Category:

“The Return of Religion? Faith based welfare provision in a Neo-Liberal Age”

abstract

Churches were for centuries the major institutional providers of welfare before the state took over this role in late 19th century Europe. With the advent of modernization theory the origins of modern welfare in religion were increasingly regarded as fossils from a distant past. The main strands of modern welfare state theory never included religion into their frameworks. However, at the beginning of the 21st century, religious institutions are once again increasingly involved in welfare provision. The following paper will discuss why religion has been marginalized in classic welfare state theory and point to the downsides that this brings for our understanding of welfare. These include not only an ahistorical understanding of the origins of modern social security but also a limited understanding of contemporary welfare state development. It will review the literature that has explicitly included religion as explanatory variable in welfare state research and examine whether it can help us to explain the puzzling resurgence of faith based welfare provision in the 21st century. The drive towards retrenchment in a perceived ‘age of permanent austerity’ is a process through which religion and religious welfare providers are likely to reenter as substitutes for state welfare.