Bipolar Bugbears. Comment on Colin Hay: ‘Globalisation, Welfare Retrenchment and ‘the Logic of No Alternative’: Why Second Best Won't Do’

Abstract

This article responds to the view that it is now time to move on from debates about post-Fordism and the new sociology of welfare. It argues that it is important to retain the traditional agenda of social welfare (redistributive state policies designed to promote social integration and challenge the outcomes of the market) at a time when an influential position in sociology is playing down the significance of structural factors as an obstacle to progress in welfare.