Beate Althammer - Rescuing the Vulnerable: Poverty, Welfare and Social Ties in Modern Europe

Rescuing the Vulnerable

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Edited by Sigrid Wadauer, Thomas Buchner, and Alexander Mejstrik

Edited by Beate Althammer, Lutz Raphael and Tamara Stazic-Wendt

Edited by

Beate Althammer, Lutz Raphael and Tamara Stazic-Wendt

Published in 2016 by

Berghahn Books

www.berghahnbooks.com

2016 Beate Althammer, Lutz Raphael and Tamara Stazic-Wendt

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.

Names: Althammer, Beate, author. | Raphael, Lutz, 1955- author. | Stazic-Wendt, Tamara.

Title: Rescuing the vulnerable: poverty, welfare and social ties in modern Europe / edited by Beate Althammer, Lutz Raphael and Tamara Stazic-Wendt.

Description: New York: Berghahn Books, 2016. | Series: International studies in social history; volume 27 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015045611| ISBN 9781785331367 (hardback: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781785331374 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Public welfare--Europe--History. | Poor--Europe--History. | Europe--Social conditions. | Europe--Social policy.

Classification: LCC HV238 .R4695 2016 | DDC 362.5094--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015045611

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-78533-136-7 hardback

ISBN 978-1-78533-137-4 ebook

An Introduction

Political theorists tend to describe modern Western societies as ones characterized by a direct relationship between the individual and the state; whereas in traditional societies people belonged primarily to clans, estates, guilds, religious groupings and local communities, the modern nation state is composed of autonomous and equal citizens. Yet despite the rise of this notion of the state as the dominating sociopolitical entity over the past two and a half centuries, more immediate social ties have remained of eminent importance. Humans need palpable, face-to-face relationships for their happiness and well-being, and the state too relies on the social networks of everyday life for its stability and smooth functioning. One sphere in which the interdependencies and also contentions between large and small social entities are particularly evident is in the treatment of poverty. The state, as represented by central government, took on ever greater responsibility for securing the welfare of its citizens in the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and although the process of welfare state-building was not in the first place designed to relieve the smaller units of society of their original duties, there has been frequent controversy over whether state intervention in the social sphere may not unintentionally loosen the ties that bind societies together. Apart from state citizenship, three types of social tie have remained crucial in the debates on poverty and welfare: first the family, second the home in the double sense of a dwelling and of a home town, and third, the workplace.