Still unlike, but not that different?

Comparing the USA and Europe, researchers often stress differences and divergence. The American welfare state is portrayed as a residual laggard whereas its distant Scandinavian cousin is a frontrunner. But does the story of American and Scandinavian welfare exceptionalism hold for closer scrutiny? How different are the USA and Europe when it comes to welfare outcomes? Is Europe becoming Americanized due to globalization, post-industrialization, and the disintegration of the oldfangled compromise of embedded liberalism? Or, will Europe and Scandinavia in particular continue to produce all-encompassing, state-led answers to contemporary challenges?

Discuss with Theda Skocpol, Jens Alber and Martin Seeleib-Kaiser the past and the future of the welfare states in Europe and America.

Theda Skocpol is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. She will be giving the 2010 H.C. Andersen Lecture on November 17 at the University of Southern Denmark.

Jens Alber is professor of sociology at the Free University Berlin and director of the research group “inequality and social integration” at the Social Science Research Centre in Berlin.

Martin Seeleib-Kaiser is professor of comparative social policy and politics at the University of Oxford and fellow of Green Templeton College.

Location: Room U46 at the University of Southern Denmark's main campus in Odense, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense M.

Time: November 18, 2010, 12.30 to 15.00

The research seminar is followed by a light reception.

If interested in attending, please contact Mai Hostrup Brunse (mai@sam.sdu.dk).

Deadline for registration is November 8.