COST Action “Who Cares in Europe?”

On November 17-18, COST Action “Who Cares in Europe?” will hold its annual meeting at the Institute of Contemporary History in Ljubljana.
In the framework of this program
WE KINDLY INVITE YOU TO THE PUBLIC SESSION
WHO CARES IN EUROPE?
NOVEMBER 17, AT 17h
AT THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY HISTORY (PRIVOZ 11)
The session will be followed by a cocktail.

The speakers will discuss their COST Action Who cares in Europe? as well as one of the network’s ongoing projects UNPOLITICAL POLITICS? PUBLIC ACTION FOR SOCIAL PROTECTION IN EUROPE FROM THE LATE 19TH CENTURY TO THE EARLY 21ST CENTURY.

We invite all scholars and broader public interested in the issues related to welfare, new approaches to political history, as well as those interested in the functioning of the COST Actions in general. The speakers at the session will be the leaders of the COST Action, and the editors of the Unpolitical Politics reader:

Clarisse Berthezène, Professor of Modern British History and Vice-President of Université de Paris, chair of the COST Action Who Cares in Europe?

Laura Downs, Professor of History at the European University Institute and Principal Investigator on the ERC Advanced Grant project “Social Politics in European Borderlands, 1870s-1990s: A Comparative and Transnational History”

Efi Avdela, Professor Emerita, University of Crete 

Dominika Gruziel, Research Fellow at the European University Institute, on the ERC Advanced Grant project “Social Politics in European Borderlands, 1870s-1990s: A Comparative and Transnational History”

Dimitra Lampropoulou, Assistant Professor in Contemporary History, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Further description:

Who Cares in Europe? is a four-year COST Action that defines and develops an emerging research field that explores the relationships among voluntary associations, families and states in the creation of social welfare in Europe. It focuses on the question of how state welfare emerged from the social welfare provided by non-profit, non-state institutions and individuals; how it has developed and changed over time; and how, in recent years, it has entered into crisis in many countries. The Action emphasizes the welfare state’s deep historical roots, and uses local case studies to recover the “voices” and contributions of individuals, families and voluntary associations. This will give us a much deeper and richer story about social protection in Europe than is currently available. By analysing the long-term development of welfare within a triadic optic that examines the interactions among families, voluntary welfare associations and states in the creation of social welfare, the Action has the potential to radically shift dominant paradigms in the field of welfare studies. The Action will contribute to welfare policy development and debate by offering a historical perspective on current problems and debates and the principles and premises that underpin them.

Unpolitical politics? Public action for social protection in Europe from the late 19th century to the early 21st century is one of the current projects of the Action. It is a reader which will be organized around the paradoxical notion of “unpolitical politics” as a form of individual or collective public action undertaken by many actors working in the field of social protection, broadly conceived. As the editors state, ‘“Unpolitical politics” is, for our purposes, more of an analytic concept than an emic/native formulation, as these actors did not necessarily express themselves in precisely this language. We believe that this concept constitutes a broad problématique that is transversal to our entire Action. It therefore holds potential for pulling together a wide range of findings, themes, and approaches that have emerged across members’ individual studies and transversal projects.’ The reader will consist of contextualized presentations and critical readings of a short document or set of documents regarding a public action in the field of social protection, interpreted (analysed) in light of the concept of “unpolitical politics.”