ICSP: The International and Comparitive Social Policy group

INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE SOCIAL POLICY : FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR RESEARCH, TEACHING AND LEARNING

21-22 April, 2004

The relationship between 'globalisation' and welfare state development has generated much debate in recent years. This interest has emerged in the context of, inter alia, the reorientation of welfare, the changing role of the state in the welfare arena, greater sensitivity to variations in the mixed economy of welfare internationally and the range of conduits through which health and welfare policies are made and implemented. One of the consequences of these various developments is that the predominantly inward-looking, domestic preoccupation of social policy as a field of academic study is giving way to more cross-national, international and transnational approaches to research and teaching. This workshop brought together those interested in the conceptual, theoretical and methodological challenges involved in integrating these approaches into social policy analysis. In particular, it explored issues raised by 'comparativising' international social policy, 'internationalising' comparative social policy and 'transnationalising' both comparative and international social policy.
This two day seminar held at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 21st-22nd April of 2004 was a collaborative effort between the International and Comparative Social Policy (ICSP) special interest group, the School for Policy Studies (Patricia Kennett) and the Social Policy and Social Work learning and teaching support network (SWAPltsn) both at Bristol University, and with financial support from the Social Policy Association. This was the first ICSP group seminar and aimed to contribute to the development of an intellectual agenda and a community of interest around global welfare studies, a field that embraces international and comparative social policy. The seminar focused on conceptual, theoretical and methodological issues arising from integrating cross-national comparative dimensions into global social policy, situating cross-national comparative social policy in the context of the supra-nationalisation of social policy, and integrating trasnational processes that cut across national boundaries into social policy. Keynote speakers were Lesley Doyal 'Understanding gender, health and global restructuring: opportunities and challenges', Ian Gough 'Insecurity and welfare regimes in Asia, Africa and Latin America', Marianne Hester 'Domestic violence in China and the UK' and Bob Deacon 'Global Social Policy: a policy and research agenda'.

The seminar attracted 30 scholars (post-graduate students, full-time researchers, lecturing staff) from Britain, Ireland (North and South), Spain, Denmark and Japan, presenting quality papers on a wide range of topics and themes (from world systems theory to international policy transfer to international welfare markets to EU monetary union), touching on diverse policy fields (employment, housing, health, education, social security) and addressing issues across a range of continents (Europe, Africa, Asia and America). See the Seminar programme (PDF) for further details of papers presented. Given the richness and diversity of the papers it is not possible to provide a representative account of the issues arising from the seminar. Pushed to pick out three broad issues that re-appeared in a number of papers, however, we would emphasise (i) the conceptual, theoretical and methodological challenges involved in studying the relationship between globalisation, (or global restructuring,) and social policy change in one domestic arena let alone in a comparative context, (ii) the need to revisit assumptions that nation states and their welfare institutions have been or currently are impervious to trasnational forces and international developments, and (iii) the need to keep context, at the forefront of any analysis that attempts to internationalise comparative social policy or to comparativise international social policy. Overall, what was patantly clear to us was that the conceptual, theoretical and methodological issues arising from integrating international, comparative and trasnational approaches into social policy analysis are many and complex, and that they provide a long-term research agenda for those of us working in this field!

In addition to dicussing these issues from a research perspective, the seminar also focused on learning and teaching issues arising from the theme. Pat Young from SWAP facilitated a workshop that focused on issues arising from integrating an international perspective into social policy teaching. Kevin Farnsworth (Sheffield University) and Theo Papadopoulos (University of Bath) provided structured input into the discussion by outlining the rationale and issues arising from their experience of developing an international approach to social policy teaching, while Rob Hulme (Manchester Metropolitan University) outlined a new, entirely web-based, module on international and comparative social policy that he is developing. Nicola Yates and Zoë Irving outlined their plans to develop learning and teaching resources for the ICSP group. The delineation between research and learning and teaching is less clear in practice, a point made by Theo Papadopoulos who demonstrated the current potential uses of a virtual library for cross-national comparative social policy (www.social-policy.org) that he has developed in recent years.

We are tremendously pleased with the seminar's success. For us it demonstrates the strong interest in international and comparative social policy issues in the SPA and the role of the ICSP group as a forum for discussing these issues. We look forward to seeing you at the SPA annual conference in June 2005 at which we will be convening the annual meeting of the ICSP where we will outline the group's achievements since last year's meeting and involve you in planning the year ahead.

Nicola Yeates and Zoë Irving

(co-convenors ICSP)