Social policy responses and social development during and after the unequal pandemic

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has had daunting economic and social impacts on many aspects of human life, but these impacts have been unequally distributed, with the brunt of health and labour market risks falling on socio-economically disadvantaged individuals and families. We argue that the welfare state could help mitigate such social risks and facilitate social solidarity. Moreover, NGOs (and social groups) play a prominent and supplemental role in developing welfare states in the face of the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic potentially raises an opportunity to rethink the current structures of the capitalist economy and the welfare state, and result in more ambitious reforms in East and Southeast Asian welfare states.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 pandemic
• unequal pandemic
• social policy response
• welfare state
• productivist welfare regime

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Source: https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/coronavirus/regional-country/country-responses/lang–en/index.htm.

2. Source: https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/coronavirus/regional-country/country-responses/lang–en/index.htm.

3. Source: https://www.social-protection.org/gimi/ShowWiki.action?id=3426.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology has been reorganised asNational Science and Technology Council in Taiwan in July this year. So the funding soure should be “National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan [108-2410-H-031-069-MY2].

Notes on contributors

Yeun-Wen Ku

Yeun-Wen Ku is Professor at the Department of Social Work, National Taiwan University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester, U.K. and then taught social policy in Taiwan’s universities for over twenty years. He has written widely on welfare development and policy debates in Taiwan, extending to comparative study on East Asian welfare.

Chung-Yang Yeh

Chung-Yang Yeh is an Associate Professor in Department of Sociology, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan. His main research interests include ‘comparative East Asian welfare states’, ‘welfare attitudes’ and ‘pension policy’ . He published some Journal articles and books chapters focusing on pension policies, social investment policies and in-work poverty in East Asia.