Abstract
Recognised and innovative researchers in various disciplines are sometimes credited with a Liber Amicorum. The concept refers to a Latin phrase meaning ‘book of friends’. Wim van Oorschot, a retired Professor of Social Policy at the Centre for Sociological Research at KU Leuven/Belgium, and one of the leading researchers in the field of social policy, recently received such a Liber Amicorum entitled Leading Social Policy Analysis from the Front. The book is divided into five parts: ‘Introduction’ (Part I), ‘The academic career of Wim van Oorschot’ (Part II), ‘Social policies, their causes and consequences’ (Part III), ‘Popular attitudes towards social policies’ (Part IV) and ‘Epilogue’ (Part V). A total of 45 researchers and colleagues from different European countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Germany, have contributed to the book. The authors represent disciplines like social policy, social work, social psychology, sociology, political science, social security law, social and political philosophy and socio-economics, hence the anthology can be regarded as being both multi- and interdisciplinary.
The breadth of the book reflects van Oorschot's rich research agenda. His research focused on both cultural analysis and comparative analysis of social policies and welfare states, as well as on several welfare policy areas. For example, he has conducted research on disability benefits and equity in social protection, solidarity and social capital in different European welfare states, social rights for the elderly, as well as labour market flexibility.
In the introduction, some of van Oorschot's research colleagues describe the importance of collegiality and support. The editors explain: ‘Wim is more concerned about the success of the team than about his personal achievements. In the finale of a race, he is not afraid of leading out, so that a teammate can finish the sprint. Whenever he is triggered by a scientific problem, he becomes a true baroudeur, who goes á bloc on a breakaway and paves the road for the rest of the pack’ (p.3). This Liber Amicorum can be warmly recommended to those who are interested in social policy and various social policy issues in different countries. After reading the reflections of many researchers about their memories and experiences, I would like to share my insights regarding the strength that van Oorschot's research shows in conducting comparative social policy analyses; we will need far more explorations of welfare policy, social problems and social conditions in the future. As a disability researcher, for example, I would like to see more comparative analyses on the living conditions of people with disabilities in Europe. Carrying out comparative studies requires a lot of knowledge and experience but also courage. Here, Wim van Oorschot can be a great role model for future generations of researchers.
The reader can gain more insight into the added value of the chapters in Parts III and IV of the book. Both the historical welfare regime debate and various epistemological and methodological issues in the scientific debate are presented in Part III. Examples are given of various debates and researchers who have discussed Esping-Andersen's welfare state regimes historically, but also in our time. Part III also describes what researchers can learn from the analyses of benefit recipiency that van Oorschot carried out during his research career. In one chapter, Kenneth Nelson, Professor of Sociology at the Swedish Institute for Social Research describes several important challenges and what can be learned from van Oorschot's analyses of benefit recipiency : ‘the theoretical positioning of benefit recipiency as a mediating variable at the micro-level linking social rights and social expenditures at the macro level, the discovery of new trade-offs in social policymaking, and the emphasis on the complementariness between different types of social policy data’ (p.58). However, it is not only survey-based benefit recipiency data that is discussed. Discussing different concepts is also a challenge. The book also describes older concepts that are interesting to bring up for discussion, such as the concept of solidarity and how the concept is perceived by students in higher education. The book describes, for example, the importance of generous social security systems and the importance of solidarity in practice. For those who are interested in the concept of solidarity, its history and also how we talk about both solidarity and altruism in the welfare system, Part IV offers interesting contributions. Solidarity can be either strong or weak. Antoon Vandvelde, Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Philosophy of KU Leuven (Belgium) expresses the two concepts of solidarity: ‘Weak forms of solidarity presuppose actual reciprocity, whereas strong solidarity refers to something like the Rawlsian veil of ignorance: I am highly skilled and I am convinced that I will never have an unemployment insurance problem. Despite this, I contribute to the unemployment insurance scheme. If I am a sensible person, I know that I could have been in a more vulnerable situation or that, once upon a time, my children could be less lucky than I am’ (p.387).
Beyond the various chapters in Parts III and IV, van Oorschot's reflections on his own personal and professional development in the field of social policy are of particular interest. In a chapter entitled ‘A Privileged Career’, van Oorschot reflects on the reasons why he chose his research areas: ‘I would find it difficult to say why I was alternately interested in such specific phenomena as non-take-up, disability policies, labour market policies, benefit recipiency, and deservingness attitudes’ (p.394). He also reflects on how social sciences research and postgraduate studies have changed over the years. Today's younger PhD students are exposed to stress when they have to publish their results in international journals: ‘The âpublish or perish culture’ that we knew from the US soon became a reality in Dutch academia’ (p.397). He describes the New Public Management and neo-liberalism and the effects they had on the individual perspective. The universities have come to be characterised by individual merits that are quantified. Van Oorschot also reflects on what collegial support means and how important it is for researchers to work together in different research projects in order to gain inspiration from colleagues about both theories and research problems.
In the book, the reader meets both social policy issues and social policy history. The Liber Amicorum can therefore be recommended to students, teachers and researchers in the field of social work and social policy. It will certainly be a basis for further discussions on the meaning and contributions of social policy and also the need for continued social policy research.
