Katrin Weible
Comprehending the Global Spread of Social Cash Transfers: National Evolutions, Socio-political Contexts, Types
Social assistance in terms of publicly financed monetary benefits for persons in need has constituted a central social policy instrument in the developed countries for many decades. In developing countries, however, such social cash transfers (SCT) have gained relevance only since the 1990s, expanding continually throughout the world. So which contexts and features of SCT may explain their spread within relatively few years?
Bearing the long tradition of social assistance in Western Welfare States in mind, academic research might be inclined to stick to classical
social assistance conceptions. However, which particularities of SCT schemes in the global South can be identified? And which specific types of
SCT can be constructed?
Finally, which may be appropriate dimensions and indicators to analyse these SCT schemes adequately?
In order to get first answers to these questions I will undertake both a systematic, descriptive investigation of the SCT schemes worldwide as well as a first explanatory approach of causal presumptions on the evolution and spread of the SCT programmes in the global South. The results will lead to a comprehensive typology of all SCT schemes throughout the world.
My doctoral dissertation forms part of the interdisciplinary research project
FLOOR - Social Security as a Human Right
FLOOR - Financial Assistance, Land Policy and Global Social Rights
www.floorgroup.de
