Tag Archives: welfare

Why is Northern Europe so Indebted? The Impact of Welfare on Household Debt

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Oleg Komlik

by Martino Comelli* You might think the U.S. would be world champion of household debt, yet the highest private indebtment has always been in the Nordic countries. Debt, however, takes different forms. In Scandinavia, inclusive welfare systems make debt into … Continue reading →

Posted in Community members posts, Papers | Tagged consumption, credit, debt, European Union, financialization, varieties of capitalism, welfare | Leave a comment

“Herd Immunity” is Epidemiological Neoliberalism

Posted on April 24, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

by Isabel Frey* While most European countries are imposing lockdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus, a few countries are opting for a different strategy: herd immunity. Instead of testing as many people as possible and implementing measures to … Continue reading →

Posted in Community members posts | Tagged COVID-19, neoliberalism, policy, welfare | 13 Comments

Did Neoliberalism and Austerity Cause Brexit? Yes.

Posted on August 14, 2018 by Oleg Komlik

While the Brexit process is underway and UK politicians are tearing themselves apart over this overwhelmingly and multidimensionally complicated issue, an economics professor from Warwick University Thiemo Fetzer provides ample and comprehensive evidence that the austerity-induced withdrawal of the welfare state brought about by the Conservative-led … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged austerity, Economic Sociology, neoliberalism, policy, Political economy, politics, United Kingdom, welfare | 1 Comment

The Role of Money in Social Life: Morality and Power in the World of the Poor

Posted on January 7, 2018 by Oleg Komlik

by Ariel Wilkis* “Perhaps behind the coin is God.” — Jorge Luis Borges, The Zahir (1949) My book The Moral Power of Money: Morality and Economy in the Life of the Poor (Stanford University Press, 2017) offers a new focus for … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Community members posts | Tagged Argentina, community, ethnography, money, morality, politics, poverty, power, social networks, sociology of money, welfare | 1 Comment

Debt crisis and austerity in the Eurozone: social and political impacts

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Oleg Komlik

During the past six years, the countries of the European periphery – Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain – have been experiencing severe economic-financial crises. In the shadow of these drastic events, the EU institutions and the IMF initiated “bailout programs” for … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged austerity, banking system, debt, European Union, Eurozone crisis, financial crisis, Greece, monetary policy, policy, Political economy, politics, Spain, welfare | 4 Comments

Putting a human face on ‪statistics: unemployed‬ ‪women‬ in the public ‪workforce‬ system

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

An ethnographic sociologist Mary Gatta (Rutgers University) went undercover, posing as a client in a New Jersey One-Stop Career Center which is supposed to be an unemployed worker’s go-to resource on the way to re-employment. Weaving together her own account … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged gender, Great Recession, inequality, policy, poverty, unemployment, United States, welfare | 1 Comment

Removing social support is necessary to compel the ‪‎poor‬ to work — what’s the origin of this erroneous political idea?

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

According to many neoliberal politicians and economists, assistance to the unemployed and poor always creates more of the poverty it aims to alleviate; therefore removing welfare benefits and social support is necessary to compel the ‪‎poor‬ and unemployed to work. What is the origin … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged class, economic history, ideas, inequality, Karl Polanyi, neoliberalism, Political economy, poverty, United Kingdom, welfare | 2 Comments

Inequality is not just about money. Inequality is literally a killing field.

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

Inequality is a socio-cultural order which reduces our capabilities to function as human beings, our health, our dignity, our sense of self, as well as our resources to act and participate in the world— argues Göran Therborn (University of Cambridge) … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged class, Finland, gender, higher education, inequality, United Kingdom, United States, welfare | 3 Comments

Corporate‬ density is especially potent for the growth of ‪elite‬-oriented nonprofits—but not social welfare nonproﬁts—when local networks and cultural norms support elite mobilization

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Oleg Komlik

In “Golﬁng Alone? Corporations, Elites, and Nonproﬁt Growth in 100 American Communities” (open access) Christopher Marquis, Gerald F. Davis & Mary Ann Glynn examine the link between corporations and community by showing how corporate density interacts with the local social … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged corporations, elite, networks, nonprofits, social capital, social networks, United States, welfare | Leave a comment

The Instability of Inequality and Unregulated Capitalism

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Oleg Komlik

Nouriel Roubini: “Unregulated capitalism can lead to regular bouts of over-capacity,under-consumption, and the recurrence of destructive financial crises, fueled by credit bubbles and asset-price booms and busts… Any economic model that doesn’t properly address inequality will eventually face a crisis of … Continue reading →