Publication

This paper reviews approaches to welfare monitoring since the 1960s, showing the impact of changing ideologies, practical difficulties with concepts and data, and changes in social conditions. The author discusses various theoretical approaches to welfare, discussing risk as the dominant way of thinking about social policy and exploring welfare as focusing on the ability of individuals to mobilize resources as necessary. She discusses theories that concentrate on meeting basic needs, arguing that an overemphasis generates a static concept of welfare. She concludes that to address the dynamics of people's lives it is necessary to adopt different welfare approaches.