26.-28.03.2025

In collaboration with the Taiwanese Society for Care Research, the CRC Project A07 on the Global Dynamics of Long-Term Care Policies conducted a conference and a research workshop in Taipei, Taiwan on March 26-28, 2025. The event focused on comparing long-term care policies across three East Asian and three European countries.

In the past decades, many European and East Asian societies are intensively discussing about long-term care provision and related policies. In both regions, the proportion of older persons relative to the total population is above global average and public long-term care systems have been introduced in a comparatively large number of countries. The conference and workshop therefore focused on a cross-regional comparison and networking of researchers from three European and three East Asian welfare states with social insurance traditions: Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands and, as well as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

The one-day conference held on March 26 brought together scholars from the six countries plus activists, politicians and persons with care needs from Taiwan. Presentations covered the long-term care systems, their challenges and future reform directions of the six countries as well as the topic of migrant care work. Common issues identified across countries were for instance marketization in the care sector, missing support for family care giving and working conditions and staff shortages in long-term care. International participants were particularly impressed to learn about the strong involvement of civil society organisations and activists in long-term care policies in Taiwan.

Under the heading of Bridging Care Research Across East Asia and Europe, on March 27-28, researchers resumed in a smaller round to discuss future directions in care research and comparative research ideas on long-term care. During the workshop, several working groups were formed to discuss collaborative research projects, focusing on care migration, care politics, technology and care, family care and care ethics. A final highlight of the event were the on-side NGO visits to the Taiwan International Workers Association, Taiwan Association of Family Caregivers, and Taiwan Alzheimer’s Disease Association. The workshop concluded with many plans for future collaborative research and all project A07 members hope to continue joint research activities in the future.

Contact:
Dr. Johanna Fischer
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57074
E-Mail: johanna.fischer@uni-bremen.de

12-14 September 2024, Bilbao

Meika Sternkopf, Dr. Johanna Fischer, Migyeong Yun and Davide Viero from the A07 Project "Global Dynamics of Long-term Care Policy" recently presented their research at the 7th International Conference on Evidence-based Policy in Long-term Care. Bringing together academics, policymakers, and experts, the conference is organised every two years by the International Long-term Care Policy Network (ILPN). This year, it was co-hosted by the Government of the Spanish province Biscay and took place in its capital Bilbao from 12-14 September 2024.

Meika Sternkopf and Migyeong Yun presented two of the A07 project’s case studies focusing on the development of long-term care systems in different contexts and regions. In a panel on care fragmentation challenges, Meika introduced her research on Uruguay with a presentation titled "Towards an integrated system of care? The introduction of the National Care System in Uruguay". Her research on the case highlighting the role of international organisations within advocacy coalitions has also been recently published in Policy Sciences. Another international interdependency was highlighted in Migyeong’s presentation "Developing a public long-term care system in the context of a pre-existing market for live-in migrant care work: The case of Taiwan" within a panel on migration and long-term care. This research conducted together with Simone Leiber and Li-fang Liang highlights how the existing migrant care market may influence the subsequent development of the public long-term care system using the case of failure to adopt long-term care insurance in Taiwan.

Within the panel "Easy to compare? Generating and using comparative data on long-term care" Davide Viero and Johanna Fischer presented their work on generating global comparative datasets. Drawing on earlier CRC research and her dissertation, Johanna presented the Historical Long-Term Care Systems Dataset outlining which countries worldwide have established different forms of long-term care systems. Davide continued to outline the current data collection on the generosity of long-term care systems, presenting a preliminary analysis of inclusiveness and scope of benefits across 40 countries worldwide. The datasets received great interest from the audience and yielded a lively discussion on possibilities and limitations of international comparative research in a complex field like long-term care.

The sessions on comparative data and care fragmentation were also co-organised and moderated by Johanna as a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Observatory of Long-Term Care Interest Group on Long-Term Care Policy. The novel Global Observatory of Long-Term Care is a new network initiative aimed at facilitate cross-national learning to improve and strengthen care systems and research. It was officially launched at the conference in Bilbao and welcomes any members with relevant experience and interest in the field of long-term care.

Contact:
Dr. Johanna Fischer
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57074
E-Mail: johanna.fischer@uni-bremen.de

Interview with Samantha Grunow

Samantha Grunow worked as a Student Assistant in project A04 "Global Developments in Health Care Systems" from July 2022 until May 2024. She studied International Relations at the University of Bremen from 2021 until 2024 and focused her studies on the role of humanitarian organizations and aid amidst crisis and instability. In this interview, she describes her work experience and gives tips to students who are interested in a SHK position.

What were your tasks in project A04?

My tasks mainly included identifying and downloading relevant health care legislation and then supporting the development and implementation of a codebook to annotate this legislation to create a plane of comparability concerning inclusivity and generosity of health care systems on an international level. Towards the end of my time with A04, my tasks were centralized in implementing the codebook as much as possible, so we could make use of my experience in the development phases.

Were there synergy effects between your studies and your work at the CRC 1342?

I studied International Relations with a focus on the role of humanitarian actors. I wrote my final thesis on health care accessibility and the efficacy of humanitarian aid in Somalia, a country that has lacked a functioning central government for over 40 years now. Because of the overlap between my research's concern for the lack of a health care system and the project's concern for the assessment of existing systems, I was grateful for the team’s input on my research, especially early on as I had never focused on health care accessibility or health care systems before.

The project's insight to existing systems and the situation in Somalia was beneficial to guide some of my decision-making about how to approach the situation and support my conclusions by offering comparisons. Simultaneously, as I worked with white papers and other documentation from Somalia, this also informed my opinions and suggestions through the implementation of project’s codebook. Now, despite my absence, I hope some of my conclusions may help the team navigate obstacles they encounter when trying to assess health care systems which have been influenced by the involvement of humanitarian aid over time.

What career step followed and what do you take with you from your time as a student assistant into your professional life?

I finished my thesis in the middle of May and am now eager to find a full time position which is impactful and fulfilling. Working with the A04 project has given me valuable research skills, but what I value the most is that, even as a student assistant, I was given meaningful tasks which played a large role in the trajectory of the project. I joined the group a bit nervous that I would not be able to offer a lot due to my lack of experience, but I am thankful for this experience and take from it a reminder that everyone has skills and strengths that can be highlighted to optimize the productivity and success of any team.

What advice would you like to give future student assistants?

I encourage you to not only get your hours in but voice your opinion and do not be afraid to make mistakes. Listen to everyone's stories and advice and you will learn a lot more from your experience than how to collect and analyze data. The A04 project gave me a place to truly grow. I learned more than I ever anticipated about project management, especially regarding methodology and analysis, but this is mostly because the team gave me and my opinions a place in conversation. I was not the assistant that did the busy work, but a team member who supported decision making and planning. Take advantage of this position and make the most of it, you will appreciate all of it later.

Contact:
Alexander Polte
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 7
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57063
E-Mail: alexander.polte@uni-bremen.de

Jour Fixe with Adelina Comas-Herrera on December 15, 2023

As the last event of our Jour Fixe lecture series in 2023, Adelina Comas-Herrera from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) hold a lecture on Friday, December 15. Among others, she presented the Global Observatory of Long-Term Care (GOLTC).

The GOLTC is a platform to facilitate cross-national learning to improve and strengthen care systems. It aims to identify shared challenges in relation to long-term care and showcase how different countries and localities are addressing them, sharing research evidence and supporting collaborations. The Observatory is part of the International Long-Term Care Policy Network (ILPN), at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC) at the LSE. It is funded partly by CPEC and has received a funding award from LSE Innovation.

Furthermore, Adelina Comas-Herrera presented several care-related research projects building on the Theory of Change. The Theory of Change is an outcomes-based approach which describes how a programme brings about specific outcomes through a logical sequence of intermediate outcomes. Applying it as a tool for research it can facilitate policy evaluation and development in that it looks not only at the current status and the process outcome but conceptualizes the – often black- boxed – process steps in between in detail. Adelina Comas-Herrera has applied the Theory of Change approach both in an international contest as well as in research on long-term care in the United Kingdom. For instance, in the STRiDE project, the Theory of Change was used to generate research and policy maps for seven low- and middle-income countries with the aim that people with dementia and their carers live well and their social and health risks are mitigated. In doing so, stakeholder workshops in each country developed goals and steps to strengthen the countries’ response to dementia, including for example the adoption of a national dementia strategy or informal and formal carer training.

Adelina Comas-Herrera is Director of the Global Observatory of Long-Term Care at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, LSE. She is co-lead of the Strengthening Responses to Dementia in Developing Countries (STRiDE) project. Funded by the Research Councils UK Global Challenges Research Fund, STRiDE is a multi-national project covering Brazil, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, and South Africa. The project aims to build capacity to generate research that supports the development of policy responses to dementia, with related projects also under way in Hong Kong and New Zealand. She is the curator of LTCcovid.org, an initiative linked to International Long-Term Care Policy Network that shares evidence and resources to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 amongst those who use and provide long-term care. Her main research interests are economic aspects of care, treatment and support of people with dementia, and long-term care financing, both in the UK and globally. She has extensive experience in developing simulation models of the future resources required to address long-term care needs and needs arising from dementia. She has a background in Economics (BA and MSc, Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and is currently Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has been a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank’s ageing and long-term care programme and for the World Health Organisation’s Department of Ageing and Life Course, preparing a country self-assessment tool for long-term care. She was a co-author of the 2016 and 2019 editions of the World Alzheimer Report.

Publications:

• The development and validation of the discrimination and stigma scale ultra short for people living with dementia (DISCUS-Dementia)
• Pathways to care for people with dementia in India: an exploratory study using case vignettes
• Research evaluating the effectiveness of dementia interventions in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic mapping of 340 randomised controlled trials
• Dementia in South Africa: a situational analysis

Contact:
Dr. Johanna Fischer
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57074
E-Mail: johanna.fischer@uni-bremen.de

Interview with Achim Schmid, postdoctoral researcher, Hüma Nauroozi and Ed Miller, both interns in project A04 “Global Developments in Health Care Systems”

In the framework of their mandatory internships Hüma and Ed are part of the project A04 from October to December, 2023. Hüma Nauroozi is a Bachelor student of Public Health in the 5^th semester. Ed Miller is a Master student of "Sozialpolitik" (Political Science) in the 3^rd semester.

Could you give us a brief overview of what the A04 project is all about?

Achim Schmid: The project pursues three research goals: first, to describe the evolution of healthcare system generosity, its inclusiveness and scope of benefits, worldwide, from its inception to the present; second, to identify and explain the temporal and spatial patterns of inclusion and benefit dynamics; and third, to explore the role of specific causal mechanisms and to explain the findings of the project’s first phase concerning the timing and emergence of specific healthcare system types in select African countries.

Currently, the main focus lies on the measurement and portrait of inclusiveness ("Which social groups are covered by the healthcare system?") and scope of benefits ("What kind of benefits are covered?") based on healthcare legislation. After the manual annotation of selected documents, we plan to use AI-learning models to extract generosity information. The information will contribute to the Welfare State Information System (WeSIS) of the CRC.

What are your academic interests and what tasks do you have in the project?

Hüma Nauroozi: I am studying Public Health at the University of Bremen in the 5^th semester and I am currently looking for a topic for my bachelor thesis. My research interests relate primarily to qualitative and quantitative empirical research of health care systems in a global context. My main tasks include data collection and analysis of health legislation as well as preparing a country brief on the Rwandan healthcare system with its own peculiarities.

Ed Miller: I am a retired Army Officer with a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Maryland. Previously, I was a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. At present, I am doing a Double Degree Master Program in Political Science/Sozialpolitik at the University of North Carolina and the University of Bremen. As part of my internship, I focus on the complex healthcare system of the United States of America. In this regard, I examine legal texts and laws.

Two months behind and one month ahead: How do you look back on your internship here at the CRC 1342?

Ed Miller: We appreciate that we have the opportunity to make a real contribution to research of the CRC 1342. In our team, we have the feeling that we work on an equal footing with our colleagues. We are very pleased that the results of our work are to be published at the end of our internship.

Hüma Nauroozi: A personal highlight for me was the Africa workshop organized by Julian Götsch and Lorraine Frisina-Doetter in November. The discussions and meeting experts on Kenya and Nigeria, some of whose work I had previously only read in class, was a great experience for me and I learned a lot.

Achim Schmid: We are very happy about Hüma’s and Ed’s contribution to our project and of course we hope that they can also profit from their research experience.

Contact:
Dr. Achim Schmid
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58526
E-Mail: aschmid@uni-bremen.de

A04 workshop from November 1 to 3, 2023, at Haus der Wissenschaft in Bremen

The workshop "Exploring healthcare system introductions and historical developments in Kenya and Nigeria within the context of nation-building and post-colonialism" of the project A04 "Global Developments in Healthcare Systems" took place from 1.11.2023 to 3.11.2023 at the Haus der Wissenschaft, Bremen, and was organized by Lorraine Frisina-Doetter and Julian Götsch.

The aim of the workshop was to bring together leading experts on the historical development and current design of healthcare systems in Nigeria and Kenya. The focus was on the influence of colonialism and nation-building on the introduction and subsequent reforms of the healthcare systems in the two countries. Philip Aka (International University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Mario Azevedo (Jackson State University, USA), Joseph Balogun (Chicago State University, USA), Diana Cassells (Purchase College, New York, USA), Pascal Grosse (Charité Berlin, Germany), Daniel Künzler (University of Fribourg, Switzerland), Rebecca Martin (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK), George Ndege (Saint Louis University, USA) and Friday Okonofua (University of Benin, Nigeria) participated in the workshop as experts on the historical development of the healthcare systems in Kenya and Nigeria.

After an introduction and welcome speech by Heinz Rothgang of the A04 project, the workshop opened with a presentation by Mario Azevedo on the impact of colonialism on health systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Followed by presentations and subsequent discussions of the A04 project's work by Lorraine Frisina Doetter and Sebastian Haunss, the first day concluded with an extensive and critical roundtable discussion on the utility and the limitations of the concept of nation-building in the post-colonial context of sub-Saharan Africa. From the very beginning, the workshop was characterized by lively discussions and intensive exchange, which characterized it until the end.

The following days were dedicated to the historical developments of the healthcare systems in Nigeria and Kenya. In their presentations on Nigeria Joseph Balogun, Friday Okonofua, Rebecca Martin, Diana Cassells and Philip Aka highlighted different perspectives on the evolution of the healthcare system. They shed light on the historical development of health professions, the evolution of health services and the collaboration of different actors during colonialism, the impact of the Coloniality of Sovereignty and the continuing British influence on healthcare in Nigeria today. In their presentations on Kenya, George Ndege and Daniel Künzler focused on the institutional continuities of the healthcare system from colonialism until today, discussed the history of health reforms in the country and analyzed the political rhetoric that accompanies them. The workshop ended with Pascal Grosse's presentation on the connection of Public Health and colonialism in Sub-Saharan Africa today.

The workshop contributed to an intensive exchange among the participants by sharing expertise and different perspectives on the two countries. Furthermore, two focus group discussions that were conducted during the last day will contribute to the work on a comparative case study of the developments of the healthcare system in the two countries. Beyond the scope of the workshop, the possibility of a long-term exchange within the group and a joint publication was discussed.

Contact:
Dr. Lorraine Frisina Doetter
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58561
E-Mail: frisina@uni-bremen.de

Julian Götsch
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 5
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58540
E-Mail: goetschj@uni-bremen.de

Within the frame of the A07 project “Global Dynamics of Long-term Care Policies”, the team supervised by Heinz Rothgang and Simone Leiber is looking to implement innovative research on long- term care systems in international comparison.

A particular aspect of the A07 project is the application of case vignettes to investigate the inclusiveness of different benefits schemes in a selected sample of countries. The goal is to identify and assess the legislative strength and relevance of various factors influencing eligibility, with particular attention to care needs, cognitive limitations, and socio-economic conditions. To properly discuss the implementation and select the variables and eligibility conditionalities to include in the vignettes, the A07 team is organising two workshops with a group of renowned international experts with extensive knowledge on the topic of long-term care, who agreed to support and consult the team throughout the process.

Using vignette cases allows for combining the details and complexity of real-life scenarios with experimental designs’ variable modifications, which in turn provides the chance to assess the relevance of a single variable. While this methodology is mainly applied to interpret individual judgement, beliefs, and intended conduct, team A07’s approach to the methodology is different as it profiles the method to be used in the field of social policy, where vignette studies are still underused. In this application, the vignettes present different carefully constructed profiles of people needing long-term care through constructed descriptions, including various aspects of needs for care, economic situation, family constitution, and living conditions. The vignettes, obtained by the symmetrical and orthogonal combination of the selected variables from these fields, are then going to be presented through a questionnaire to a group of respondents with in-depth knowledge of the single long-term care systems eligibility assessment methodologies to evaluate which benefits could be granted to the different profiles in each country. Against the background of the A07 project’s aim, which pays particular attention to the risk of dementia in long-term care, the role of the syndrome in granting potential access to benefit schemes will be under scrutiny.

The results will then be analysed quantitatively to identify correlations between specific conditionalities and the inclusion in the target population for particular types of benefits.

The first and more informational meeting took place on Thursday, the 23rd of March, 2023. It produced a fascinating discussion on the methodology and the aspects and factors that need to be considered to make the application of the method feasible while balancing the intrinsic trade-off between depth and case complexity that using vignettes requires. Building on the feedback obtained in the first meeting, the A07 team plans to organise a draft formulation of the different vignettes and the questionnaire for data collection. The second meeting with the consulting experts will take place on the 24th of May, 2023, and will focus on reviewing and refining the drafted vignettes before finalising the questionnaire.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Simone Leiber
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy, Faculty of Education
Universitätsstraße 2
45141 Essen
Phone: +49 201 183-2319
E-Mail: simone.leiber@uni-due.de

Prof. Dr. Heinz Rothgang
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58557
E-Mail: rothgang@uni-bremen.de

Dr. Lorraine Frisina-Doetter (SOCIUM and CRC 1342 member) served as rapporteur for the WHO/Europe at their first-ever “Health in the Well-Being Economy” Regional Forum on 1-2 March 2023 at UN City, Copenhagen, DK.

Building on the growing awareness of the importance of health to well-being economies, the Forum demonstrated how countries are already shifting investment, spending and resources.
The Forum also focused on actions needed to be taken going forward, as the European Region faces the interlinked challenges of climate change, the war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. These challenges are placing health, social care and welfare systems under strain, and widening health inequities across the Region.

The event gathered high-level representatives from ministries of health, finance and economy, together with government advisors working on recovery, resilience and sustainable development policies, public health policy-makers, and representatives of national and international banks, nongovernmental organizations, the United Nations and European Union agencies.

Key speakers included: Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe; Katrin Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland; Professor Mario Monti, Former Prime Minister of Italy and European Commissioner; Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Director, Institute of Health Equity, University College London.

Contact:
Dr. Lorraine Frisina Doetter
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58561
E-Mail: frisina@uni-bremen.de

Fischer has studied the development of social policy in the field of long-term care both in a comparative and conceptual perspective.

Johanna Fischer is working in project A04 "Global Developments in Health Systems and Long-Term Care as a New Social Risk" and has written her doctoral thesis entitled "The Emergence of Social Policy in the Field of Long-term Care. A Comparative Analysis of the Introduction and Types of Long-term Care Systems in a Global Perspective".

Her work is based on three papers:

• The Introduction of Long-Term Care Systems: The Nascent Diffusion of a Novel Social Policy Field (with Alexander Polte and Meika Sternkopf, forthcoming)
• Comparing long-term care systems: A multi-dimensional, actor-centred typology (with Lorraine Frisina Doetter and Heinz Rothgang, 2021, in Social Policy & Administration)
• The social long-term care insurance model: Comparing actor configurations across countries and time (under review)

Johanna Fischer's work includes the first comprehensive comparative study on the introduction of long-term care systems worldwide and the development of a multi-dimensional, actor-centred typology of long-term care systems. Based on this, she has presented a systematic international comparison of long-term care systems and especially of social insurance-based long-term care systems.

Contact:
Dr. Johanna Fischer
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57074
E-Mail: johanna.fischer@uni-bremen.de

Johanna Fischer and Gabriela de Carvalho explain in an interview how the country reports are produced and what added value they offer compared to other sources.

The twentieth issue of the CRC 1342 Social Policy Country Briefs was published a few days ago. On this occasion, could you briefly explain what this series is about?

Johanna Fischer: The series consists of short reports which each focus on a specific social policy field in an individual country. For instance, the latest two reports were published on the The Health Care System in Bulgaria (No 19) and the The Long-Term Care System in Sweden (No 20). In line with the CRC’s current focus on social policy emergence, the Country Briefs focus on the introduction of social protection policies and systems and their further development until today. The aim of the series is to give country and policy experts the opportunity to share their knowledge in a semi-structured format, to disseminate the information through the online open access publications, and to shed light on under-researched cases, in particular those found beyond high-income economies.

How did this series come about?

Gabriela de Carvalho: Within our project A04 on the Global Developments in Health Care Systems and Long-term Care as a New Social Risk (as well as the CRC as a whole), we are collecting a lot of data for instance on the introduction points of health and long-term care systems, their characteristics, and subsequent reforms. From this we have plenty of indicators which are stored in the CRC’s Global Welfare State Information System (WeSIS) and can be used by us and others for research. However, this information is contained into – mainly – categorical and numerical indicators. We have established the Country Brief Series to complement these datasets with more in-depth descriptions in a story-telling format and information that country experts or team members have accumulated. We thought that it would be a pity if this comprehensive knowledge about health and long-term care system beginnings and development would not be recorded and published. For the future it is planned that the Country Briefs will also be stored in WeSIS as an additional country-based resource.

What is the particular benefit of the series compared to existing social policy country profiles?

Johanna Fischer: There are several benefits of the CRC 1342 Social Policy Country Briefs which are not fully covered by other publication series. One is the explicit historical focus – in line with the CRC’s research agenda – on the initial introduction and further chronological development of social protection systems. Other publications do focus much more on providing a snapshot of the currently existing systems. However, we think it is important to contextualise current developments with a thorough understanding of their historical trajectories to understand why they look like as they do today and also for comparing countries at different stages of development.

Gabriela de Carvalho: We also emphasise the role of the state in health and long-term care systems, and the different ways in which this actor took responsibility for health and elder care. Even though we plan to publish briefs on all countries of the world, we particularly target under-researched cases from the Global South. Examples are the reports on the healthcare systems of Equatorial Guinea and Mozambique which are currently under review.

Gabriela, you have written the first issue of the series - what is the biggest challenge in such a report?

Gabriela de Carvalho: The biggest challenge in writing such a report is, I would say, the 'novelty' of the content. As here at the CRC we have an explicit interest in historical developments and the role of the state in social policies, our country briefs shed light on these topics, which is different from existing descriptions of social policies. Therefore, a historical analysis and reflection of each case is necessary before producing the report.

There are also conceptual challenges: For instance, experts have different ways to measure and operationalise what a system is, and when a system starts. This requires an open and constant dialogue between the editors of the series (the A04 project) and the authors.

Further, data availability differs greatly among countries. Authors often need to slightly adapt the provided template to accommodate for issues of data availability and reliability.

How do you choose the topics of the issues (policy field and country)?

Johanna Fischer: At the moment we are working on the both policy fields covered by our project, that is health and long-term care. As for the countries, we have started mostly with the ones where we had an established contact to potential authors for instance because they had participated in our expert surveys already. Furthermore, we tried to cover a diverse set of countries situated in different regions. Our aim is explicitly to cover cases outside the standard Northern/Western country samples often analysed, even though we are of course happy to also include reports on the more well-known cases. For long-term care, for instance, many reports have so far focused on the long-standing members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development or the European Union. We are therefore happy that we were already able to extend this sample, for instance with the Country Briefs on Uruguay, Costa Rica, Taiwan, Singapore, Ukraine, and Serbia.

Gabriela de Carvalho: In the case of healthcare, reports on countries such as Jamaica, Mozambique, Albania, and Mexico have already been published or are currently under review.

Will the series cover other policy fields in the future as well?

Johanna Fischer: We are open to extend the series to other policy fields. In the future we would therefore like to more closely collaborate with other CRC projects to make this happen.

Contact:
Dr. Gabriela de Carvalho
Campus de la UAB
08193 Barcelona
E-Mail: Gabriela.DeCarvalho@uab.cat

Dr. Johanna Fischer
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57074
E-Mail: johanna.fischer@uni-bremen.de