Title Participants Abstract "Why deservingness theory needs qualitative research. Comparing focus group discussions on social welfare in three welfare regimes." "Tijs Laenen, Federica Rossetti, Wim van Oorschot" "This article argues that the ever-growing research field of welfare deservingness is in need of qualitative research. Using focus group data collected in Denmark, Germany, and the UK, we show that citizens discussing matters of social welfare make explicit reference to the deservingness criteria of control, reciprocity, and need, but also to a number of context-related criteria extending beyond the deservingness framework (e.g., equality/universalism). Furthermore, our findings suggest the existence of an institutional logic to welfare preferences, as the focus group participants to a large extent echoed the normative criteria that are most strongly embedded in the institutional structure of their country’s welfare regime. Whereas financial need is the guiding criterion in the “liberal” UK, reciprocity is dominant in “corporatist-conservative” Germany. In “social-democratic” Denmark, it appears impossible to single out one dominant normative criterion. Instead, the Danish participants seem torn between the criteria of need, reciprocity, and equality/universalism." "The Social Legitimacy of Targeted Welfare and Welfare Deservingness" "Wim van Oorschot" "Why deservingness theory needs qualitative research. Comparing focus group discussions on social welfare in three welfare regimes" "Tijs Laenen, Federica Rossetti, Wim van Oorschot" "Welfare Criticism in Times of Economic Crisis. Perceptions of Moral, Economic and Social Consequences of the Welfare State, 2008–2016" "Bart Meuleman, Sam Delespaul" "Freedom of Movement in the EU and Welfare State Closure: Welfare Regime Type, Benefit Restrictions and Their Implications for Social Mobility" "The welfare state criticism of the losers of modernization: How social experiences of resentment shape populist welfare critique" "Arno Van Hootegem, Koen Abts, Bart Meuleman" "The Social Legitimacy of Targeted Welfare. Attitudes to Welfare Deservingness" "Accessibility to oral health care for people on social assistance : a survey of social service providers from Public Welfare Centers in Flanders" "Fee Verheire, Carla Fernandez Rojas, Martijn Lambert" "Social expenditure, social rights, and benefit receipt as indicators of welfare state generosity: Three peas in a pod, or a different kettle of fish altogether?" "Adeline Otto" "Revitalising the debate about how to operationalise and measure the extent of welfare states – the so-called dependent variable problem – recent research claims a close theoretical interaction between three different indicators: aggregated data on social expenditure, social rights and social benefit receipt. It is suggested that they all serve as an approximation of welfare state generosity as a dependent variable and help understand variation between as well as change of welfare states. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how these three indicators statistically relate to each other, using data on unemployment cash benefits. To this end, a time series cross-sectional analysis is carried out,covering 16 European countries for the period 2003–2011. Results confirm theoretical reflections on the link between the different indicators, whereby higher levels of social expenditure are positively associated with more generous social rights as well as higher levels of benefit receipt. Additionally, the study points to an ambivalent relation between benefit access and benefit levels within indicators as well as across them. This suggests competing policy choices in European welfare states, whereby more generous benefit access implies lower benefit levels and vice versa. The study contributes to the existing dependent variable literature in a twofold way. First, the conceptual link between the three different indicators and the assumptions they are associated with are critically reviewed. Second, by providing a statistical analysis of the relation between the different indicators across 16 countries, the study goes beyond theoretical elaborations about their association as well as existing small-N or medium-N case time trend studies." "Profiling competences or portraying anti-oppressive practice? Video-analyzing the behavior of social welfare practitioners engaged in social circus" "Karin Hannes" "Social circus is a social welfare practice that includes teaching circus techniques to socially vulnerable groups. It is often used as a tool for social intervention. Since the 90s, the interest in social circus practice as a catalyst for change has increased. More attention is being given to the role of practitioners involved in social circus. Several studies have profiled them based on the set of competences they should master to achieve anticipated outcomes (Caravan Circus Network, 2012; Milagre, Passeiro, and Almeida 2003). We challenge the very act of profiling, arguing that the way practitioners and participants ‘connect’ via social circus should be understood through observing the way they put themselves ‘at disposal’. By means of a video analysis, we aim to portray rather than profile practitioners involved in social circus. This moves us into visualizing the anti-oppressive practice promoted in the social work discipline (and out of the competence based discourse that currently dominates professional development discourses. References:Caravan Circus Network (2012) Annual Report 2012. Caravan European Youth Circus and Education Network. Retrieved from http://www.caravancircusnetwork.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Annual_Report_12_LW.pdf Milagre C, Passeiro J & Almeida V (2003) New trainer profiles for socially disadvantaged groups. European journal of vocational training 3: 20-28. Nzira V & Williams P (2008) Useful concepts in anti-oppression. In: V. Nzira & P. Williams (eds.) Anti-Oppressive Practice in Health and Social Care. London, UK: Sage, pp. 21-40."