The book Globalizing Welfare: An Evolving Asian-European Dialogue is a much needed and welcome contribution to the yet scarce literature. It unites, in the same volume, welfare specialists from Europe and East Asia. While most chapters focus on country cases, there is some scope for comparative policy implications from a theoretical and empirical perspective. Chapter contributors are well-known and highly qualified, but insights provided by different chapters vary considerably.
Chapter 2 and 3 consider, respectively, the development of welfare states in South Korea and China. Although informative, these chapters offer a very slim introduction to the topic, and it would have been interesting to have more sources added for readers wishing to get a deeper picture. For example, more references on new social risks and unbalanced development in China could have been added in pp. 35-36 of chapter 3.
Chapter 4 offers a more detailed analysis of the state of art and development of social policies in China since 1949. The readers come away with an improved understanding of the role of People’s Associations and Residents’ autonomous organizations, suggesting that civil society participation has been essential for the development of the Chinese social welfare system.
Chapter 5 flows very well and is solidly structured – however, it simply depicts Hong Kong as a liberal political economy system, a fact that is well known to those already familiar with this theme.
Chapter 6 and 8 are welcome contributions meant to bring better understanding of the Japanese welfare state. The former offers an overview of welfare development in Japan, and it is especially valuable as it highlights the identity of the DPJ party and the role it has had in welfare reform during its brief government tenure. Chapter 8 is a fine empirical analysis highlighting internal workings of NPOs in Japan from the perspective of service quality and cream skimming. Considering how privatization of social services is a recurrent theme in the book, more comparative implications could have been added in closure.
Chapter 7 breaks away from the country case analysis, as it offers a comparative insight on different types of care work in Denmark, Japan, and China. The typology that emerges is very intriguing indeed, and the comparison itself stimulates dialogue across country experiences. However, it would have been useful to offer suggestions on future research on the topic.
The second and third part of the book offer more theoretical perspectives. In particular, in chapter 9, Kettunen highlights how the concept of ‘society’ has been intermeshed with that of ‘state’ and ‘economy’, and this argument has several parallels with the developmentalism literature characterizing welfare states in East Asia: more comparative perspectives would have been a welcome addition to the piece. Most chapters from the third part of the volume present important and theoretically deep analyses from authoritative scholars, including topics such as feminist scholarship and welfare state development (Chapter 16), the declining support for egalitarian policies after the 1970s (Chapter 18), and an outlook on the theme of populism based on German sociological theories (Chapter 19).
Chapter 10 is an interesting data-based description of how Nordic welfare states have been able to compromise a generous welfare state with economic growth despite the challenges of globalization, by broadening the tax base and keeping minimum wages high. Some further explanations on why Finland is an outlier in comparison to the rest, and discussing implications for newcomer East Asian welfare states, would have been interesting elements to include in its conclusion.
Chapter 11 and 12 discuss, respectively, normative understandings of family and gender equality in Sweden, and a historical overview of the development of childcare in Denmark. Both countries have been struggling through different historical phases, before finally becoming more gender equal, which is fascinating to learn from a non-Scandinavian perspective. Whether the same paths could be taken from traditionally more familialistic welfare states would be an interesting research commitment to take.
Chapters 13 and 14 offer some useful conceptual tools to understand, respectively, the development of pensions in Norway from a justice principles’ viewpoint, and the role of civil society in the development of the welfare state in Germany from the lens of subsidiarity. Whether we could use the same concepts for welfare development in other developing welfare states, is not further discussed. In a similar vein, chapter 15 deplores the loss of identity for voluntary organizations in Norway in the presence of contracting-out practices in quasi-markets, but this problem is hardly exceptional to Scandinavia, and much scope for discussion could have been possible by engaging with the author of chapter 8.
Finally, chapter 17 is in need of further justification for the inclusion of a country case that was a former Soviet Union member, Belarus. In addition, it would have been helpful to gain a better understanding of this case by providing a specific focal point, such as welfare politics, welfare paradigm, regime transition, neoliberal reform. As of now, several elements are combined, making it difficult for the reader to draw clear implications.
Focusing on the “exchange of ideas and practices between East Asia and North-Western Europe” (p.11), this volume variously deals with issues such as globalization, civil societies and non-profit organisations, and public-private solutions to the provision of welfare in increasingly complex welfare mix systems in Asia and Europe. The scope for discussions in the presence of common issues and conflicts is formidable: hence, this book makes a welcome contribution, hopefully setting the stage for many more interregional publications for the near future. Although the volume has many merits per se, a tighter connection between chapters, more policy implication discussions in the conclusion to each chapter, and, especially, a concluding chapter presenting directions for future exchanges and research, would have improved this collective work considerably.
Still, Globalizing Welfare: An Evolving Asian-European Dialogue is a recommended addition to the libraries of scholars specialized in sociology, political science, public administration, social policy, and social work who aim to learn more about welfare systems in Nordic Europe and East Asia.
