Assistance and Vulnerability in Interwar Europe: An Overview

The evolution of social welfare in Europe is usually regarded as a linear process in the creation of more integrated and comprehensive public systems. However, European welfare states have resulted from power relations, patterns of inclusion and exclusion, and self-help. This introduction illustrates the approach adopted in this book, which investigates the interrelation between socially marginalised people and those charged with their assistance during the interwar period: the state, local authorities, and myriad voluntary actors. By emphasising these interactions on a local, national, and transnational level, the book challenges simplistic distinctions between public and private initiatives, stressing instead that a mixed system has supplied care for the social marginal. The case studies deal with various geographical areas and social contexts, allowing for the exploration of social marginality through the prisms of gender and age, along with national and religious factors. The three main thematic areas, related to the wars, institutional segregation, and the action for young women and poor mothers, convey the mixed character of aid to marginals, the private involvement in state- and nation-building projects, and the implications in terms of social disciplining.