The Idea of a Welfare State: Towards a Genealogy (David Garland)

Edinburgh Law School, the Centre for Law and Society and the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research

Edinburgh Law School, the Centre for Law and Society and the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research are delighted to be hosting a seminar series by Professor David Garland, widely considered one of the world’s leading sociologists of crime and punishment. Professor Garland is Arthur T. Vanderbilt Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology at New York University, and Professorial Fellow in Criminology at the School of Law at the University of Edinburgh.

The series includes a seminar on Professor Garland’s current research, ‘The idea of a welfare state: towards a genealogy’.

Abstract:

The political ideal of a welfare state proved surprisingly weak in the 1980s when faced with a resurgent free-market ideology. Thirty years later, the project of revitalizing a welfare state for the 21st century still finds surprisingly little traction. At the same time, the social scientific concept of “welfare state” is remarkably unstable, ill-defined and confused; enabling contradictory theses to be argued and taken seriously. My paper seeks to cast light on this state of affairs by means of a genealogical inquiry that traces the lines of descent and moments of emergence that led up to the present. Its aim is to recover the historical contexts and contestations out of which today’s ideas – and today’s confusions – have emerged.  

The series is open to all and is free to attend, but places are limited so please make sure to register.

Event Link

Find out more and register on Eventbrite