RC 19 Research Committee on Sociology of Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy
at the
ISA's Third Forum of Sociology "The Futures We Want: Global Sociology and the Struggle for a Better World"
Vienna, 2016 July 10-14th.


Panel on "Global and Transnational Social Policy: Contexts, Policies and Processes"

A growing literature on global and transnational social policy contains both normative and analytical dimensions. Recent contributions have addressed contemporary challenges to global social policy, both in terms of policy prescriptions and in terms of understanding the processes of “global” policy diffusion or translation (Kaasch and Stubbs, 2014; Clarke, Bainton, Lendvai and Stubbs., 2015; Kaasch and Martens, forthcoming).

In terms of global social policy prescriptions, the articulation of a global social policy agenda incorporating redistribution, regulation and rights now faces a ‘crowded playground’ of a multiplicity of actor voices, and an increasing recognition of the ecological dimension. A polycentric world and a resource limited planet pose direct challenges to the articulation of global social policy understood either as a supranational body of institutions and policies or as a raft of global prescriptions for national social policy.

There has also been increasing attention to the ways in which ‘global’ policy ideas are diffused, contested and translated in transnational policy spaces. Understanding the processes and relations involved in the production, translation, and reception of ‘global’ policy requires different accounts of agency, sensitive to the growing flexibilisation of roles in global social governance arenas.

This regular session (maximum five 20-minute presentations) is organised by Bob Deacon, Alexandra Kaasch and Paul Stubbs and invites papers which address contemporary challenges to global social policy prescriptions and processes, including those posed by climate change, transnational social class re-composition, changing global governance processes and transnational migration flows.

DEADLINE for submissions is 30 September 2015.
Abstracts (300 words max) have to be submitted through http://www.isa-sociology.org/forum-2016/

We would like to encourage all researchers on topics related to global social policy in its various dimensions to join us for intense and lively discussion in Vienna, and to use this platform for potential future collaboration on some of these issues. We particularly would like to encourage younger researchers to share their ideas and projects.

Papers accepted may be considered for publication in the journal 'Global Social Policy', either as single papers or as part of a special issue.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with the session organisers Bob Deacon (b.deacon@sheffield.ac.uk), Alexandra Kaasch (alexandra.kaasch@uni-bielefeld.de) or Paul Stubbs (pstubbs@EIZG.HR)
If you want to submit an abstract, please go to http://www.isa-sociology.org/forum-2016/