This Handbook brings together leading scholars of European social policy to reinvigorate theoretical, conceptual and substantive debates around European welfare states and societies as well as the ‘social dimension’ of the European Union.

Contents: Introduction. Trajectories and frictions of European social policy Noemi Lendvai-Bainton and Patricia Kennett Part I Perspectives on European Welfare States 1. Exploring social policy ideas and language Daniel Béland and Klaus Peterson 2. Cultural political economy and ‘post-crisis’ austerity states in Europe Bob Jessop and Ngai-Ling Sum 3. Varieties of Capitalism and Welfare States: eroding diversity? Martin Schröder 4. Gendering European welfare states and citizenship – Revisioning inequalities Birte Siim and Anette Borchorst 5. Social investment over the life course: Ending European social policy as we know it? Jon Kvist Part II International and Regional Institutions and Social Policy 6. The dynamics of European Union social policy Mary Daly 7. Obstacles to 'Social Europe' David Bailey 8. The EU in the international arena and the social dimension of globalization Valeria Fargion 9. EU governance of welfare states and labour markets Caroline De la Porte 10. European Citizenship and Social Rights Cecilia Bruzelius and Martin Seeleib Kaiser Part III Comparing welfare states and societies across Europe 11. Continental welfare states in transition: The incomplete social investment turn Anton Hemerijck 12. Adjusting social welfare and social policy in Central and Eastern Europe: growth, crisis and recession Borbála Kovács, Abel Polese and Jeremy Morris 13. Southern European welfare regimes: From differentiation to reconvergence? Chiara Saraceno 14. The Anglo-Saxon welfare states: still Europe’s outlier - or trendsetter? Fiona Dukelow and Elke Heins 15. Reflecting on Nordic welfare states – continuity or social change? Bent Greve Part IV Dimensions and development of social policy 16. Unemployment benefit and labour market policies in Europe Daniel Clegg 17. Neo-liberalism, discursive change and European education policy trajectories Manuel Souto-Otero 18. The territorial dimension of social policies and the new role of cities Yuri Kazepov and Eduardo Barberis 19. The development of welfare state policies towards care work within and outside the family Birgit Pfau-Effinger 20. How European pension promises changed in austere times: 2002-2015 Traute Meyer Part V Emerging challenges and issues for European welfare states 21. Poverty and social exclusion in the European Union Brian Nolan 22. Climate change as a challenge for European welfare states Mi Ah Shoyen and Bjorn Hvinden 23. Integration and multiculturalism in Western Europe Tariq Modood 24. Radical politics in post-crisis Hungary: illiberal democracy, neoliberalism and the end of the welfare state Noemi Lendvai-Bainton 25. The Social Legitimacy of Welfare States in European Regions and Countries. Balancing between popular preferences and evaluations Femke Roosma and Wim van Oorshott 26. (Dis)Integration, disjuncture and the multidimensional crisis of the European social project Patricia Kennett Index