Rethinking Social Investment In East Asia

Over the past two decades, the study of social investment has clarified how policies that invest in human capital differ from traditional social protection, who supports them, and who benefits from them in employment, education, gender equality, and life-course security. Yet this literature remains heavily grounded in European welfare states. It is therefore unclear how far theories developed from European experiences travel to East Asia, where welfare-state trajectories, labour markets, family norms, and care regimes have evolved under different institutional and cultural conditions.

At the same time, several East Asian societies have experienced substantial expansion of policies that can be understood as social investment. The development of childcare services, the expansion of work–family reconciliation policies, and care policies across the region all suggest that East Asia provides fertile ground for rethinking the politics and consequences of social investment. However, these developments remain relatively undertheorised in the comparative welfare state literature.

This session invites papers that examine various aspects of social investment policy in East Asia. We welcome theoretical, empirical, and comparative contributions on conceptualisation, political support and opposition, distributive effects, policy outcomes, and cross-regional or intra-regional comparison. Papers may compare East Asia with Europe or other regions, or examine variation among Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and other East Asian societies. The session aims to move comparative welfare-state research beyond its traditional European focus and explore how East Asian experiences can contribute to broader theories of social investment.