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.”
** 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 InteractionDepartment 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