During the last ten years, social investment has had increasing resonance in academic and political circles in Europe. Outside the European sphere, on-going developments in social policy have been studied to a lesser degree under the lens of social investment. With the intent of filling this research gap, “Social Investment and Social Welfare” sets out to shed light on social policy interventions, focusing on social investment in in-depth studies of so-called emerging economies, however without being restricted to these. It also analyses approaches in long-established welfare states.
Beyond the comparative perspective of diverse worlds of social investment, the edited volume marks new territory as it not only includes contributions on childcare and social security but also expands the investigation to housing, community, rural development and immigration. The editors remark that a focus on these programmes and instruments enables the development of a more concrete understanding of social investment, which is often assessed by abstract acknowledgements in national reform programmes.
In chapter 12, Sarah Cook reflects on these multiple understandings of social investments and discusses the international development organisation's different underlying ideas and changing terminology. Her analysis clarifies the distinctive blueprints of organisations’ references to social policy changes that promote social investment. This extensive ideological understanding of social investment policies is illustrated in the book's contributions.
In chapter 1, James Midgley theoretically opens up the Eurocentric notion of social investment and sketches the development discourse, which early on emphasized human capital investment that included reference to societal advancement beyond the extremely influential, yet individualizing conception of Gary Becker. He puts emphasis on Theodore Schultz's human capital theory, which acknowledges the positive economic impact of public investment on health, nutrition and education.
The interconnectedness of the individualized and social dimensions of human capital investment is reflected in two chapters on asset building. In chapter 3 James Lee discusses housing investment in Hong Kong and Singapore as a way of establishing asset building for individuals and creating middle classes and increasing social cohesion and wellbeing. James Midgley critically evaluates community development in the US where he aligns social capital, enterprise and asset theories in chapter 7.
Not only does asset building incorporate productive and consumption aspects of social policy, but also reforms in pension policy. In chapter 9, Joe C.B. Leung and Yuebin Xu dissect the dual aims of the recent harmonisation in the Chinese pension system. On the one hand, the eligibility expansion integrates rural and low-income groups into the scheme, providing a more universal scheme. On the other hand, the national harmonisation increases labour mobility between sectors and across regions, enhancing economic development.
The re-focus on children as social investment as exemplified by Australia, India, South Africa, Brazil and Norway enables us to better grasp the diverse understandings and aims. In the Australian case, new instruments complement the targeted schemes for low-income children. Universal schemes for high quality childcare introduce a more state-centred responsibility for educational attainment from early years onwards (see chapter 2 by Conley Wright). In chapter 10, Halvorsen et al. characterise the move from the standpoint of a strong universal childcare tradition, which emphasises the wellbeing of children over social investment that is driven by future outcome. From their perspective, social investment pushes aside children's rights in childcare and education programmes. In the Indian case, Sony Pellissery explores the established policy tradition of connecting economic development with social welfare, especially in programmes aimed at poor children and families. In Brazil and South Africa, low-income families are entitled to targeted benefits. In the Brazilian case, Anthony Hall argues that the conditional cash transfer Bolsa Família enhances education and health of children. For South Africa, Leila Patel recognizes a positive impact on children's and mothers’ economic wellbeing as well as its additional effect of empowering women. However, in both cases, serious shortcomings are detected. In South Africa, the women's position as the primary carer reinforces gendered roles in society, whereas in Brazil Bolsa Família takes funding away from much needed social investment in social and educational services.
These cases clearly identify a global resurrection of an active role for states in social policy. In contrast to the Golden Age of Western welfare states in the 1970s, the plight of the permanent struggle with austerity is a global one, though experienced to different degrees and with diverse starting points concerning wealth, social wellbeing and social justice in the cases of countries that are presented here.
James Midgley rightfully concludes that, due to the divergent policies, a singular social investment paradigm does not emerge. Given the richness of the material in the book, a stricter underlying structure of argument across the contributions would have made for a stronger overall argument. Some authors argue in favour of cash transfer to low-income groups while others interpret these as inhibitors of improved services, as the vested interests of low income-groups strengthen governing parties. Others favour the creation of middle classes with assets and pension schemes without further consideration of the impact on low-income groups. In the end, one not only has to assess the trade-offs of shifting from equality of outcome to opportunity, but also deliberate on “who gets what, when and how” (Lasswell Reference Lasswell1950) through these policies under the expanding social investment umbrella.
