Understanding Global Shifts, Social Welfare, and Development—Unevenness in a Globalized World

Abstract

Social and economic inequalities are both significant and important issues in the study of globalization, while global forces have widened their consequences such as unleashing poverty and gender imbalances in terms of equality. The reasons lie in the reformulation of economic power associated with burgeoning free-market economies and accompanying diffusion of instrumental rationality, commoditization, and secularism. In contrast to the economic downturn and global softening of labor markets, which call for greater social protection, the welfare state has been replaced by a “non-sovereign power” wary of its global positioning but less powerful in shaping daily lives of its populace among social forces including the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). However, nation-states still serve important functions in a globe dominated by transnational corporate interests. With few options and having to make controversial choices, welfare provision has seen trends towards the commodification of social welfare whilst globalization is affecting social contracts across nation-states. This paper critically engages in these challenges to governance and development, and assesses how social welfare has been redefined and extended while many populations become embedded in greater forms of poverty creating unevenness across nation-states.