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Dear all,
As previously announced, the GPSG annual workshop and AGM will be held on Friday 7 October at the University of Westminster. The workshop theme is ‘the Politics of Wellbeing in Germany’. Please find the draft workshop programme below.
The workshop is open to all. To register for this event, please contact Suzy Robson
[log in to unmask] by
28 September 2011.
Best, Tricia Hogwood
POLITICAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION
The Politics of Wellbeing in Germany
Happy citizens are widely held to be living proof of successful democratic governance. Contented citizens reflect the legitimacy of a democratic system and its responsiveness to social and economic change. In
late capitalist societies, where tensions may arise over the unequal distribution of the benefits of economic growth, high levels of individual subjective wellbeing are seen as key to collective social stability. Additional tensions may arise in transition
democracies, where citizens face economic hardship, physical upheaval and the overhaul of socialised value systems. The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) has faced two major upheavals of this kind: first as a transition democracy in the post-war period and
second as a polity faced with the integration of a population undergoing transition following unification. Since its foundation as a corrective to the Weimar and National Socialist regimes, the FRG has demonstrated a keen interest in citizens’ evaluations
of its democratic structures and values. Since the late 1970s, it has routinely measured citizens’ objective and subjective wellbeing. Now, in common with other European states, Germany faces challenges which can be expected to raise the stakes of citizen
happiness for governance while at the same time creating an environment which threatens to undermine the bases of that happiness, at least as they are traditionally understood. Key to the elaboration of the welfare state in post-war years, ideas of citizen
happiness associated with state provision and/or regulation are increasingly coming under strain as welfare state retrenchment and financial crisis impact on government budgets. The workshop examines the contemporary debate on citizen wellbeing in Germany.
It explores the relationship between the citizen and the state in both historical and contemporary contexts. It raises questions including, for example, the notion of the state as a provider of citizen wellbeing; the relationship between citizen wellbeing
and cultural identity; how best to measure wellbeing; and wellbeing in times of economic crisis.
This event is free and open to all, but for catering purposes you are requested to register with
[log in to unmask] by Wednesday 28thth September 2011
Programme
Venue:
University of Westminster, Westminster Forum, 5th floor, 32-38 Wells Street, London, WIT 3UW
10.30 am Registration and tea/coffee
10.50 am Welcome and opening remarks (Patricia Hogwood, convenor GPSG)
11.00 am Dr Ricardo Blaug (University of Westminster)
‘Democracy and wellbeing’
(tbc)
11.45 am Alexander Burdumy (University of Aston)
‘Reconsidering the role of welfare state policy in the former GDR’
12.30 pm lunch
14.00 pm Professor Lothar Funk (Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences)
‘Prosperity and Well-Being without Growth? Recent Economic Policy-Related Controversies in Germany’
14.45 pm Dr Patricia Hogwood (University of Westminster)
‘Happy now? The limits of state intervention on subjective wellbeing in post-GDR society’
15.00 pm Research discussion forum and tea/coffee (all participants)
15.30 pm Annual General Meeting of the GPSG (GPSG members)
16.00 pm Participants depart
Contact us:
GPSG convenor Patricia Hogwood
[log in to unmask]
DPIR administrator Suzy Robson
[log in to unmask]
Location map DPIR, 32-38 Wells Street, London: closest underground stations: Oxford Circus; Goodge Street; Tottenham Court Road.
The University of Westminster is a charity and a company limited by guarantee. Registration number: 977818 England. Registered Office: 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW.