School of Social and Political Science

Welfare, policy and Covid-19

Description

Covid-19 is having a significant impact on welfare policy on many fronts. There is growing evidence that it has exacerbated inequalities of income and employment, race and ethnicity, and gender, among others. Moreover, the nature of this impact varies significantly from one country to the next, as do the roles of civil society and the commercial sector, meaning the policy challenge posed by Covid-19 is highly variegated and context dependent.

Our research engages with these policy challenges as we begin to analyse and understand the impact of Covid-19 on the content of:

  • policies (labour markets, social distancing, furloughing etc.)
  • the policy process (coordination of responses, roles of central and local government, businesses, civil society)
  • the framing of policies (use of modelling as evidence, construction of risks within contexts of uncertainty)

In order to look at these questions we are engaged in interdisciplinary collaborative initiatives that bring together our unique strengths as a social policy research unit, anchored in our core areas of expertise:

  • global health
  • welfare governance
  • children and families
  • knowledge and policy

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