Causal Mechanisms in the Global Development of Social Policies, edited by Johanna Kuhlmann and Frank Nullmeier, is the eighth volume in the Global Dynamics of Social Policy series. The series is funded by CRC 1342 and edited by Lorraine Frisina Doetter, Delia González de Reufels, Kerstin Martens and Marianne Sandvad Ulriksen.
The new volume on causal mechanisms summarises key results of Project Area B from the first funding phase of CRC 1342: From 2018 to 2021, nine projects conducted case studies and qualitative analyses to investigate the interplay of international linkages with local conditions and the resulting social policy dynamics in countries, groups of countries and major world regions.
In doing so, Project Area B has developed the concept of causal mechanisms, which enables explanations of social policy developments that can complement, deepen and in some cases even correct the established approaches of research.
Mechanisms and "process tracing" are not new in political science. However, Kuhlmann and Nullmeier present a modular approach to causal mechanisms that combines 1) elementary causal mechanisms at the level of individual and collective actors with 2) complex causal mechanisms consisting of a sequence of activities that can in turn be explained by elementary causal mechanisms.
"[B]y distinguishing between elementary and complex causal mechanisms, policy processes can be disentangled into individual steps and sequences that lead to a certain effect, which can thus be analysed in more detail," Kuhlmann and Nullmeier write in the introductory chapter of their book.
By combining process and actor orientation as well as modularisation, the concept of causal mechanisms opens up new perspectives for the entire field of social policy research, both in macro-quantitative, comparative social policy research and in case study-centred work on individual countries or social policy programmes.
The individual chapters of the edited volume analyse social policy in very different countries around the globe in both individual and comparative case studies. The volume is divided into four parts dealing with social policy in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. In addition, the chapters cover various areas of social policy, including old-age provision, health, unemployment, occupational injury, long-term care and social assistance.
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Causal Mechanisms in the Global Development of Social Policies is part of the Global Dynamics of Social Policy series, published by Palgrave Macmillan. All volumes are available for free download (open access).
Contact:
Dr. Johanna Kuhlmann
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 7
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58574
E-Mail: johanna.kuhlmann@uni-bremen.de
Prof. Dr. Frank Nullmeier
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 7
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58576
E-Mail: frank.nullmeier@uni-bremen.de
