Introduction to the Special Issue on social services as critical infrastructure: Taking stock of the promises of the social investment state
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13882627231190049 |
| Author | Tanja Klenk,Renate Reiter |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Special Issue: Social services as critical infrastructureGuest Editors: Renate Reiter and Tanja Klenk |
Introduction to the Special Issue
on social services as critical
infrastructure: Taking stock of
the promises of the social
investment state
Tanja Klenk
Faculty of Economy and Social Sciences, Helmut-Schmidt University Hamburg,
Germany
Renate Reiter
Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences, Department of Political Science: Public Policy
& Environmental Policy, FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany
Abstract
This Special Issue focuses on social services as the critical infrastructure of the social investment
model of the welfare state. It addresses social services as a research topic that is still underexposed
in comparative welfare state research and examines this topic with a systematising intention in a
broad European comparative and methodologically diverse perspective. It brings together different
strands of scholarly discussion that have hitherto been poorly connected –social services, critical
infrastructure, social investment and the welfare state’s capacity to strengthen social resilience
through providing social services. The authors of the Special Issue undertake a critical examination
of the development of the capacities to implement social service policies in different European
welfare states and different service sectors over the last two decades. Taken together, the articles
illustrate that –in practice and in contrast to the expectations of academic proponents of the
social investment paradigm –there is (still) a bias towards investing, in particular, in those services
which are anticipated as having significant economic and social ‘pay offs’(e.g. early childhood edu-
cation and care). Furthermore, the articles identify implementation challenges that pose severe
obstacles to the realisation of the social investment model.
Corresponding author:
Renate Reiter,Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences, Department of Political Science: Public Policy & Environmental Policy,
FernUniversität in Hagen, Universitätsstraße 33 / C, 58084 Hagen, Germany.
E-mail: renate.reiter@fernuni-hagen.de
Special Issue: Social services as critical infrastructure
European Journal of Social Security
2023, Vol. 25(2) 107–114
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/13882627231190049
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