Social Policy and Politics of Care in the European Union

Abstract

This panel brings together interdisciplinary research that examines how care, gender, and social policy intersect within the European Union and its broader political and institutional environment. While care has long been recognized as a cornerstone of welfare states, the EU’s institutional engagement with care, both as a policy field and as a normative framework, remains uneven, contested, and deeply gendered. The papers in this panel illuminate the multiple layers through which care is structured, negotiated, and politically articulated across Europe, highlighting comparative perspectives, institutional dynamics, and the experiences of marginalized groups.

Title	Details
Women who protest – Media representation of women’s protest in Portugal and Spain in the 21st century	View Paper Details
Development of long-term care as an EU policy field: Boundaries, knowledge and institutional actors	View Paper Details
“Experts and Politicians”: Female MEPs and the Gendered Politics of Social Policy in the European Parliament	View Paper Details
The Moral Economy of Care: How Paid and Unpaid Work Shape Attitudes toward Care across Europe	View Paper Details
Safety Denied: Migrant Women and the Politics of Domestic Violence in the UK and Europe	View Paper Details