Deep and prolonged recessions put modern societies under immense pressure: such economic crises have the potential to make millions jobless, to produce mass poverty and thus to shake the foundations of social peace.

Consequently, economic depressions have provoked wide-ranging reactions in the field of social policy, destroying established institutions and at the same time opening up new and audacious paths for social policy development. The CRC 1342 workshop "Economic Crises and Social Policy in the Twentieth Century" sets out to explore the repercussions of economic crises on social policy from a trans- and cross-national and historical perspective.

The workshop will focus on the two most important worldwide recession phases of the twentieth century: the Great Depression of the late 1920s and 1930s and the crisis-ridden period spanning from the oil price shock of the early 1970s to the Asian financial crisis and the economic turmoil in Latin America at the end of the millennium. This allows us to examine how economic crises triggered social policy changes and how these fit into a larger context of state activities concerned with citizens’ welfare. We focus on policy shifts and long-lasting institutional breaks as well as the development of discourses and ideas and the emergence of discrete historical actors – collective and individual – who left their imprint on social policy development. The geographical scope is global and deliberately trans-cends the borders of the OECD. 

The full programme of the workshop is availabe here:
https://workshopeconomiccrisesandsocialpolicy.wordpress.com/programme/

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"Economic Crises and Social Policy in the Twentieth Century" will take place as a hybrid event from the 1st to 2nd December 2022 in Bremen. However, we would prefer to meet in person with as many participants as possible and will cover all travel and accommodation costs. The event will start and finish around lunchtime and include presentations and panel discussions. We intend to publish the results of the workshop. 

If you would like to attend the conference, please contact Claire Rostalski (Email: claire1@uni-bremen.de) to receive an invitation.

Organised by Prof. Dr. Delia González de Reufels and Prof. Dr. Cornelius Torp.