The Research on Innovation of Welfare Politics in Post-Industry Economy

Abstract

The transition to post-industryism has generated a range of new tensions between welfare arrangements and labor market performance, which confront today’s welfare states with new challenges for employment-friendly recalibration, such as activation and work-care conciliation. Hence, the question of whether, how and to what extent current welfare states are able to adapt to the conditions and needs of post-industry labor markets has become a major issue in recent welfare state research. This article identifies and discusses key debates in this literature on the politics of employment friendly innovations. It first focuses on the general capacity for innovation in mature welfare states and then discusses regime-specific innovation politics, since post-industryism confronts different welfare regimes with very different challenges. For each regime, the article proposes a range of research frontiers and open debates which we consider particularly relevant and fruitful avenues for future theorizing and research.