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Raquel Varela

Dr. Raquel Varela

Simone Veil Fellow (Winter Term 2020)

Welfare State and Sustainable Development: Past, Present and Future of the “European Social Model”

This project aims to propose a model of sustainable welfare states on the European level and understand common variables that can help to define the "European Social Model." The project will produce an analysis of 1) the historical trends of the European Welfare States from 1945 to the present; 2) the variations of these models, specific configurations, and common trends of each country to be analyzed; 3) the role of welfare states; 4) the role of the European Union in shaping national social policies and gradually defining a European social model.
The selected countries are Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Hungary, taking into account: i) the different chronologies of the welfare states; ii) different models of social policies; iii) period of accession to the European Union, and iv) regional diversity. The project takes an interdisciplinary and transnational approach combining history, sociology, social policy studies, and statistics. It is also fundamental research that helps address emerging social problems within the 2030 Agenda, contributing to the on-going debate in the European Union on the welfare states' future and societies' sustainable development.