Social Policy, Poverty, and Inequality in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

This book takes stock of the diverse and divergent welfare trajectories of post-socialist countries across Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. It traces the impacts, in terms of poverty, well-being, and inequality, of over two decades of transformation, addressing both the legacy effects of socialist welfare systems and the installation of new social, political, and economic structures and, in many cases, new independent nation-states. Authors from different disciplines address key aspects of social protection including health care, poverty reduction measures, active labour market policies, pension systems, and child welfare systems.

Sofiya An is an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Nazarbayev University (Astana, Kazakhstan). She holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from Columbia University in New York City (2002) and a PhD from the University of Toronto (2014). Her research interests lie at the intersection of post-Soviet social policy and global, or transnational, social policy. In her current research, she examines post-Soviet changes in welfare institutions, the Soviet legacies, and the agency of state and non-state domestic and global policy actors. She is a member of the European Social Work Research Association and co-convenor of the Special Interest Group on Post-Soviet and Post-Socialist Social Work. Tatiana Chubarova holds PhD (Social Policy, LSE) and Doctor of Sciences (Economy, Russian Academy of Sciences) degrees and is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Economy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. Her professional interests include health and social policy in Russia in a comparative perspective; health care financing and administration; gender issues. Currently she is interested in studying the role of the modern state in social welfare provision, specifically instruments used by governments to cover population health needs. Dr. Chubarova contributed to a number of books such as Health Reforms in Central and Eastern Europe: Options, Obstacles, Limited Outcomes (ed. by J. Nemec and J. Bjorkman. Eleven Publ., Hague 2014); Implementation of New Public Management Tools: Experience from Transition and Emerging Countries (ed. by J. Nemec, M. S. de Vries. Bruylant, Bruxelles 2015); Comparative Health Care Federalism (ed. by K. Fierlbeck, H. A. Palley, Ashgate. 2015). She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the New Economic Association and Mir Peremen (both in Russian). Bob Deacon (28 May 1944–1 October 2017) was Honorary Professor in Global Social Policy at the University of York, UK, and Emeritus Professor of International Social Policy, University of Sheffield, UK. Over a fifty-year academic career, Bob was a key figure in radical social policy, the social policy of socialism and post-socialism, and, latterly, in global and regional social policy. In addition to his three key books on the topic: Global Social Policy (with Michelle Hulse and Paul Stubbs, Sage, 1997), Global Social Policy and Governance (Sage, 2007), and Global Social Policy in the Making (Policy Press, 2013), Bob maintained a commitment to advancing progressive social policy through establishing links between academic, advocacy, and policy-making fields. Paul Stubbs is a UK-born sociologist who is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia. His main research interests focus on civil society and social movements, social policy, and policy translation. He is currently undertaking research on historical aspects of Yugoslav socialism and the Non-Aligned Movement. His recent publications include Making Policy Move (with John Clarke, Dave Bainton, and Noémi Lendvai, Policy Press), Transformations in Global and Regional Social Policies (edited with Alexandra Kaasch, Palgrave Macmillan) and Social Inequalities and Discontent in Yugoslav Socialism (co-edited with Rory Archer and Igor Duda, Routledge). He is a member of the Editorial Board of Critical Policy Studies and the Croatian Journal of Social Policy.

"This is an outstanding book, a must read for anyone interested in social policy development across Eastern Europe. It covers all aspects of social protection, including health care, pension systems, labour market, poverty reduction policies, and child welfare policy. The book reports not only on the various aspects of social policy, but also discusses many countries around Eastern Europe, including the Visegrad countries, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, and Russia. The book is impressive not only in terms of its scope, but also by its in-depth analyses, using sopthisticated methodologies and data, and highlighting the major challenges that the Eastern European region, with a variation within, has been faced with over the last twenty years, namely, the fragmentation and inconsistent development of the welfare state system."—Chief Researcher Dr. Jolanta Aidukaite, Lithuanian Social Research Centre