ABSTRACT

This article, inspired by the epistemology of critical realism and its approach to assessing social and institutional change, elaborates on the impact of past welfare reform agendas in Europe, taking Italy and Germany as examples. Reading welfare state change through the lens of the concept of empowerment, it argues that such agendas should be studied by considering the nexus of different (coinciding) policies, the transformation of organisational settlements, and the reforms’ fit with encultured social expectations. Illustrating how a reform agenda containing a potential to enhance self-determination in the area of work and family life may simultaneously contribute to disempowerment, the article shows how a multidimensional ‘proto-evaluative’ endeavour may help develop a more holistic understanding of past welfare state change up to the outbreak of the Corona19 pandemic.

摘要

本文受批判现实主义认识论及其评估社会和制度变迁的方法的启发，以意大利和德国为例，详细阐述了欧洲过去福利改革议程的影响。从赋权概念的角度解读福利国家的变化，它认为应该通过考虑不同（一致）政策的联系、组织解决方案的转变以及改革与文化社会期望的契合度来研究此类议程。说明具有在工作和家庭生活领域增强自决权的潜力的改革议程如何可能同时导致丧失权能，