Social investment has come to be seen as a new approach in contrast to Keynesian and Liberal understanding of the development of welfare states. It can also be argued to be in contrast to a neoliberal approach, for a description of neoliberalism (Piven, 2015). An abundant number of books and articles have been published in recent years around social investment. The concept is although not completely new (Smyth and Deeming, 2016). Recent years has further seen articles trying to measuring and analyzing whether and how social investment has developed (Kuitto, 2016, Ahn and Kim, 2015). SPRINT (http://sprint-project.eu/) is an example of a EU-funded project looking into the area.
This session aims to explore whether there in long-term care – as for example in child-care – can be good arguments for a social investment perspective, and, further discuss how this might influencing the development of long-term care. This, as, the field of LTC is in different welfare states (Greve, 2017) so different and varied in different countries and welfare regimes that one can discuss to what degree a perspective of social investment influence the delivery, structure and possible level of public resources available to long-term care. Social investment in LTC could, as just a few examples, be rehabilitation and re-enablement, but also policies towards active ageing, or investing in welfare technology that might make it possible to continue a life independently. Benefits of investment can be better quality of life for the elderly, but also increase in labour supply (for children taking care of their parents) or reduced pressure on informal carers.
National and as well as comparative papers that tries to link the relation between social-investment, including how to measure it will be prioritized. This can also include the view of stakeholders on social investment and long-term care.
Stream convenor
Bent Greve, University of Roskilde, Denmark, bgr@ruc.dk