Deadline looms for new SLSA Stream: Social rights, citizenship and the welfare state

By Ciara Fitzpatrick

The establishment of this new stream at the annual Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference (on 5-7 April 2017, at Newcastle University) reflects the prevalence of current debates on social rights, citizenship, and the welfare state.

The convenors consider that there is no area of law more closely aligned with the social and the political than the governance of welfare states, which will undoubtedly support interesting and diverse socio-legal exploration. States endorse social and economic rights – yet fiscal objectives, ideological constructions of the citizens’ rights and responsibilities and of the causes of socio-economic deprivation can appear to more strongly influence the evolution of the law. In turn, the development of welfare state law can have a profound impact on lived experiences of citizenship for disadvantaged members of society.

We seek to bring papers together which address these problems from different perspectives. Submissions to the stream may approach aspects of Social Rights, Citizenship and the Welfare State from a range of standpoints, including (but not limited to):

1. Substantive legal problems in the judicial recognition of social rights and arguments about the role of the courts to determine and uphold them.
2. Associated theoretical issues on the uncertain status of social rights and social welfare, including material on the welfare state, conditionality, social justice, or the impact and meaning of ‘austerity’.
3. Comparative or supranational focused papers on social citizenship, welfare state typologies, or the effects of devolution and localism.
4. Ideologies of welfare, perceptions of adequacy and the continued relevance of Esping-Andersen’s worlds of welfare capitalism.

The deadline for abstracts is Monday 16^th January at 6pm. My fellow convenors and I would be thrilled to receive your input, which will undoubtedly contribute to the success of this new stream.

Information on submitting an abstract via EasyChair is available here.

Convenors: Ciara Fitzpatrick (Ulster University), Jed Meers (University of York), Mark Simpson (Ulster University)

Follow @C_Fitz_ / @Jed_Meers / @SLSA_UK on Twitter for updates.