Rethinking Social Policy: Quest for Human Well-being in the African Context › view all

Social Science Lecture Series with Prof. Jimi O. Adesina

Social Science Lecture Series (cluster initiative) with Prof. Jimi O. Adesina (University of South Africa) on "Mobilizing Social Anomie to Strengthen the State: The Social Credit System and China’s Struggle for Social Order".

Abstract

The last four decades in Africa witnessed the institution of a social policy architecture that is broadly stratified, segmented, and segregated. The neoliberal counter-revolution sought to dismantle solidaristic, collective provisioning and the publicly mandated social investment system. In several African countries, the linkages between social investment and developmental aspirations were central to public policy. The effect of market-centric and segregated public provisioning has been deleterious for human well-being on the continent.
Against this background, in this lecture, we outline a modality for rethinking social policy that is framed by the idea of Transformative Social Policy. We outline the pedigree and meaning of transformative social policy. Outline the key concerns of social policy and its multiple tasks—protection, production, social reproduction, redistribution, and social cohesion. In the context of development, we outline the inherent synergistic relationship between economic and social policy and the task of social policy in the structural transformation of the economy, social institutions, and social relations—with the core normative underpinning of solidarity and equality.
We highlight the imperative of a wider vision of human well-being and a broader set of policy instruments for enhancing well-being. We use the case of land and agrarian reform to illustrate the case for a policy instrument that simultaneously activates multiple tasks of social policy and enhances human well-being.
Rethinking social policy in the African context calls for locally sensitive instruments, a higher vision of human well-being, and fidelity to the continent’s development concerns that is ecologically responsible and gender sensitive.

Participation

You can join the meeting via Zoom here. (Meeting ID: 946 142 2783)

If you like to join us on site, we will have a live stream in our BIGSSS Conference Room (University of Bremen, Mary-Somerville Str. 7, UNICOM building 7, 3rd floor, room 7.3280).