Gøsta Esping-Andersen


Gøsta Esping-Andersen is a Danish sociologist whose primary focus has been on the welfare state and its place in capitalist economies. Jacob Hacker describes him as the "dean of welfare state scholars." Over the past decade his research has moved towards family demographic issues. A synthesis of his work was published as Families in the 21st Century.
Esping-Andersen is professor emeritus at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, and member of the Scientific Committee of the Juan March Institute and of the Board of Trustees and the Scientific Council at the IMDEA Social Sciences Institute, both in Madrid. He is a member of the American Academy of Social Sciences and the British Academy. He was awarded an honoris doctor causa from the University of Copenhagen in 2012. He is now a research professor at Bocconi University in Milan.

Major works

His major, most influential and highly cited book titled The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism was published in 1990 and it laid out three main types of welfare states, in which modern developed capitalist nations cluster:
It is important to note that these categories have little to do with the contemporary labels of American politics, and rather have much more to do with general political theory. The traditional examples of the three types of welfare states are the United States, Germany and Sweden.
Other sociologists and political scientists went on to apply his theoretical analysis to the real world. One such example is a book entitled Real Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, written by Robert E. Goodin, Bruce Headey, Ruud Muffels, and Henk-Jan Dirven. While some critics claim Esping-Andersen's categories are becoming outdated, many political scientists are attracted by its intuitive simplicity.
In the past decade, his research has moved to demographic issues and in particular to the consequences of women's changing roles. He has, most notably, developed a multiple equilibrium framework for the understanding of changing family behaviour. See in particular his 'Families in the 21st Century and Esping-Andersen and Billari 'Retheorizing family demographic change'. Population and Development Review '''

Criticism

The evolving nature of welfare states often makes it difficult to categorize. Arguably, many welfare states have components from some or all typologies, making them more akin to points on a continuum rather than rigid typologies, a fact Esping-Andersen acknowledges in his writings.
According to French sociologist, Georges Menahem, Esping-Andersen's "decommodification index" aggregates both qualitative and quantitative variables for ”sets of dimensions” which fluid, and pertain to three very different areas. Similarly, Menahem has concerns regarding the validity of the index, and its potential for replication.
In 1996, the Italian Social Scientist Maurizio Ferrera, further developed Esping-Andersen's Worlds of Welfare by identifying a fourth subtype of the welfare state model, the Southern European Model of Welfare.

Books

Esping-Andersen, Gosta Families in the 21st Century.