Call for Papers: Sustainable Welfare Workshop
12th March 2026
The University of Glasgow
We are living in a time of polycrisis, where related and interdependent crises in our social and ecological systems are under acute strain (McCartney et al. 2025). Climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, inequality, and economic stagnation are converging to challenge the very foundations of social security and wellbeing. As governments seek to respond through “green” growth and industrial strategies, and movements call for Green New Deals and degrowth transitions, fundamental questions arise about the role of social policy in enabling just and sustainable transformation.
This one-day workshop at the University of Glasgow on March 12th 2026 invites contributions that explore how welfare institutions, labour markets, and systems of care can be re-imagined to ensure equity and wellbeing within ecological limits. Building on the concept of “sustainable welfare” and the growing field of eco-social policy, the event will develop new perspectives on how social policy can contribute to a post-carbon, post-growth future.
Sustainable welfare invites us to move beyond the anthropocentric and productivist assumptions of twentieth-century welfare states. It asks not only how to meet human needs but also how to confront the social and ecological harms of excessive wealth, consumption and resource use (Gough, 2017; Koch, 2022). While the technological aspects of the sustainability transition – energy systems, transport, food production – are often well-defined, the social and institutional conditions for this transition remain underexplored. This workshop provides a space to examine those conditions, drawing together scholars and practitioners committed to rethinking welfare in light of planetary boundaries.
We particularly note that the UK research funding environment poses emerging challenges for scholars exploring post-growth and degrowth frameworks. In August 2025, the ESRC signalled it would place “a high bar” on funding proposals explicitly advocating for degrowth or steady-state economic models. This announcement has provoked concern within the academic community about the scope for growth-critical research in the UK. Our workshop aims to provide a forum where such research can be presented, debated, and advanced – without assuming that economic growth remains the uncontested organising principle of welfare policy. We therefore welcome submissions that engage with institutional, normative, and empirical questions around welfare, inequality, and ecological limits, and that reflect critically on the research and policy contexts shaping this field.
Possible themes include:
- Designing welfare systems for ecological sustainability and climate resilience
- The role of social policy in a post-growth or sufficiency-based economy
- Addressing overconsumption and extreme wealth through redistributive or regulatory reform
- Eco-social contracts, green job guarantees, and universal basic services
- The politics and governance of welfare transitions
- Care, work, and gender in the sustainable welfare state
- Comparative and historical perspectives on eco-social policy innovation
- The political economy and funding of growth-critical research
We welcome theoretical, empirical, and policy-oriented papers from across the social sciences, as well as interdisciplinary and comparative approaches.
Please send your proposals to Dr Thomas Rochow (thomas.rochow@glasgow.ac.uk) and Dr James Kaufman (j.c.kaufman@salford.ac.uk) by the 12th of December 2025. The proposals should include an abstract of max 400 words and a short bio. Selected authors will be notified by January 12th 2026.
The submissions will be considered for publication in the form of a special issue in Social Policy & Society.
The workshop is organised with the Social Policy Association and the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Glasgow.