Towards a Post-crisis Welfare State in Central and Southeast Europe: Challenges and Perspectives

In the context of concurrent crises, the concluding chapter summarises the challenges that confront social policies and social work in Central and Southeast Europe. It demonstrates how the embedded crisis framework is reflected in the approaches to reform the social assistance, i.e., the protective function of the welfare state, in (re)constructions of the professional identity of social workers and approaches to contain the welfare of contributors, i.e., those funding the welfare state. The chapter also provides an outlook on future perspectives and prospects related to social policy and social work in Central and Southeast Europe. These perspectives represent an endeavour to reclaim the welfare state and rebalance the approaches to welfare according to principles of bottom-up policy making, democratisation and transparency, evidenced-based social policy and innovations, as well as embracing human rights perspective and user-centred approach. The imperative in the Central and Southeast Europe will be no less than the reconstruction of the post-crisis welfare state around a renewed set of principles.