Mobilizing for Welfare in Europe

The Unpolitical Politics of Social Action, 1870s-1990s. A Document Reader

Laura Lee Downs, Clarisse Berthezène, Dominika Gruziel, Efi Avdela, Dimitra Lampropoulou

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2025
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350457324
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Social History
• Index: History

This is an engaging collection of 20 primary sources that provide insights into different approaches to social welfare from around Europe in the long 20th century, focusing particularly on marginalized groups.

Each chapter sheds light on a case of collective welfare action, and includes translated archival documents, alongside commentary that contextualises each case, and examines its socio-political underpinnings. This volume explores sources from 12 European countries, capturing historical approaches to collective action, and encompassing a plethora of welfare issues – such as religious and secular philanthropy, youth protection, gender history, and campaigns for prison reform. The result is a detailed study of the social welfare state in Europe.

With every source accompanied by an analysis of the ideas, ambitions, and practices of the actors themselves, in addition to an exploration of the larger regional context that influenced each pattern of collective mobilization, the editors highlight the distinction between the social and the political that underlies many forms of action undertaken in the field. Using the idea of 'unpolitical politics' as a new lens through which to explore the development of social welfare in a number of European contexts, this volume analyses who and what purports to be 'neutral', and why.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Dedication Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Documents
• List of Figures
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Reconceptualizing Welfare in Twentieth-Century Europe by Efi Avdela, Clarisse Berthezeène, Laura Lee Downs, Dominika Gruziel and Dimitra Lampropoulou
• 1 The Societies of Saint Vincent de Paul, Province of Posen in the German Empire, at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Dominika Gruziel
• 2 Lydia von Wolfring on Child and Youth Protection, Vienna, Early Twentieth Century by Maria Papathanassiou
• 3 Women Workers of Home Mission in Lapland, Finland, Early Twentieth Century by Pirjo Markkola
• 4 The Dawn, the First Philanthropic Association of Muslim Women in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1919 by Fabio Giomi
• 5 National Council of Italian Women versus Union of Italian Catholic Women, Italy, 1920s by Anne Cova
• 6 Juana Salas’s Plea for Women’s Political Involvement in Local Government, Spain, 1920s by Inmaculada Blasco Herranz
• 7 The National Association for Assistance to Redeemed Italy in Interwar Trieste, Italy, 1919–23 by Laura Lee Downs
• 8 The Voluntary Association ‘Protectors of the Girls’, Zagreb, 1930s by Stefano Petrungaro
• 9 Mural Art, Municipalities and Social Protection, France, 1930s by Elena Maria Rita Rizzi
• 10 The İstanbul Tuberculosis League, Turkey, from the 1920s to Early 1950s by Léa Delmaire
• 11 The Nationalist Organization ‘Work And Leisure’, France 1935–1947 by Laura Lee Downs
• 12 The British Conservative Party and the Women’s Voluntary Services, Britain, between 1938 and 1948 by Clarisse Berthezène
• 13 Socio-Political Agents of Welfare and the Reception of ‘Social Security’, Italy, between 1943 and 1948 by Michele Mioni
• 14 Welfare and Dissemination in the Women’s Section of the Falange, Spain, 1940s to 1960s by Ángela Cenarro
• 15 The Club of Volunteers, under the High Protection of Her Majesty the Queen, Greece, 1950s and 1960s by Efi Avdela and Dimitra Lampropoulou
• 16 The Athens Union of Families of Political Exiles and Prisoners, Greece, between 1958 and 1967 by Dimitra Lampropoulou
• 17 A Debate on ‘Mental Hygiene’ in Post-war Greece, between 1959 and 1962 by Despo Kritsotaki
• 18 Child Care, Local Communities and Self-Management in Socialist Yugoslavia, 1970s by Ana Kladnik
• 19 The Catholic Council for Social Welfare in Ireland, 1970s by Carole Holohan
• 20 The Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas: Campaigning on Behalf of Irish Prisoners Abroad, Ireland, 1970s and 1980s by Patricia Kennedy
• 21 Cherish and the Support of Single Mothers in Ireland, 1970s and 1980s by Lindsey Earner-Byrne
• 22 Women in Black, Belgrade, Serbia, 1990s by Adriana Zaharijević
• Bibliography
• Index
• Imprint