Assistant Professor Gareth Millward and Postdoc Troels Skadhauge
2025 – 2028
DFF Project 1
Project description
In many European counties, people are complaining about their welfare states. For some, the state is too generous. For others, not enough support is being given to those who need it. Long-standing debates about our rights and responsibilities to the country and to each other play out in the newspapers, social media, and political campaigns.
These complaints might reveal what people think is wrong with the welfare state. But perhaps just as importantly, they tell us a lot about what people think the welfare state ought to be.
This historical study shows what people complained about in the British and Danish welfare states since the 1960s. It shows how our concerns have changed over time, and how the way we have complained has also changed. By doing so, we can analyze the history of welfare and how citizens responded to it. The international comparison demonstrates how different countries reacted to perceived problems. The differences – and, indeed, the similarities – in complaining in traditionally “universalist” welfare state like Denmark versus a more “liberal” one like the UK will give a deeper understanding of European postwar welfare. Further, it will inform present-day debates by showing how complaints can be understood as expressions of what welfare could be, not just moaning about everything that is supposedly wrong “these days”.