Welcome to our expert series on the post-COVID reset. That is, a reset along a more inclusive path. The series introduces listeners to leading thinkers as they debate concrete policy options for such a recovery and take stock of the data that could (and should) inform these policy shifts.  

 

Our expert today is Robert Walker, Professor Emeritus of the University of Oxford and current Professor of Social Policy at the Beijing Normal University. 

 

The host is John Crowley, UNESCO's chief of Research, Policy and Foresight. 

 

The COVID-19 turmoil came with more universal and arguably more progressive social policy interventions across the Global South and the Global North. Never before, for example, solutions such as the Universal Basic Income have been entertained so seriously in the policy debates and indeed experimented with at such a scale.  

This podcast is on universalism and social policy in the context of the current crisis. We look here into:

• Whether the shift towards more universalist solutions will survive the immediate COVID-19 crisis and is viable in the longer run;
• What are the concrete policies that might take root and is UBI one of them;
• How the COVID-19 crisis altered the public conceptualization of risk, disadvantage, and need for policies to protect against/manage such; and
• How by pushing so many more into disadvantage and exposing risks, COVID-19 might have lifted some of the stigmatization and shame attached to need and disadvantage  – an issue that has traditionally affected the social policy practice in the North and the South alike.

 

PART 1: UNIVERSALISM AND COVID-19

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PLAY PART 2: Knowledge and data

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listen for more  
  Basic Income – deciphering the promises and the data​
  Put carbon dividend at the core of post-COVID reboot
  Close social protection gaps to reset equitably after COVID-19 
  Universal Basic Income and beyond - what are our options for recovery

 

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Also on: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | Deezer | Anchor  

 

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Robert Walker is Professor Emeritus of the University of Oxford and the former Head of Oxford’s Social Policy Department. He is currently Professor of Social Policy and Development at the Beijing Normal University. Robert's research interests are the politics of welfare state, poverty, and stigmatization in relation to social policy. 

  

The facts, ideas and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the authors; they are not necessarily those of UNESCO or any of its partners and stakeholders and do not commit nor imply any responsibility thereof. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this piece do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.