Please join the Department of Sociology for presentation by:

*David Garland, Professor of Sociology and Law, New York University***

Wednesday, November 13, 2013
HW-1631
4:15 -- 5:25 (Reception to follow)

*“What is the Welfare State? A Sociological Inquiry”*

In the wake of the crash of 2008, “the social question” – how to regulate
free market capitalism so as to ensure a necessary minimum of social
security, social integration and social justice – is once again at the top
of the political agenda. And so too is the question of the welfare state,
which for more than a half a century has been modern society’s
institutional response to that question. Since the 1980s, the “welfare
state” has had only negative connotations in political debate but
sociological analysis suggests a very different conception. Far from being
a “failure” or a “problem,” the welfare state is an essential element of
contemporary capitalism and a vital concomitant of democratic government.
It is neither a policy choice nor a political preference: it is a
fundamental dimension of modern capitalist society. Drawing on the work of
Emile Durkheim, Karl Polanyi and Wolfgang Streeck, this lecture will
analyze the welfare state as a “normal social fact” in capitalist
democracy.”

*PLEASE RSVP* via email to Lynn Chancer ([log in to unmask]) or Tom
DeGloma ([log in to unmask])

** David Garland is widely published in the areas of law and criminology.
Notable publications include *Peculiar Institution: America's Death Penalty
in the Age of Abolition* (Harvard and Oxford 2010); *The Culture of
Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society* (University of
Chicago and Oxford 2001); and *Punishment and Modern Society: A Study in
Social Theory* (Chicago and Oxford 1990).

-- 
Thomas DeGloma
Assistant Professor
Associate Editor, *Symbolic Interaction*
Department of Sociology
Hunter College, CUNY
695 Park Avenue, 16th Floor Hunter West
New York, NY 10065

Phone 609.576.2297
Fax 212.772.5645

http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/socio/


The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
       -Stephen Biko
Speak loudly, even if your voice shakes.
       -Unknown
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know
peace.
       -Jimi Hendrix