Anders Sevelsted

Presentation

The main research project that I am currently engaged in concerns the origins of the early welfare state ‘avant la lettre’ at the turn of the 20th century across civil society and state spheres. While the concept of ’welfare state’ only became established after the Second World War, many of the principles that are associated with the concept were being established in the first half of the 20th century: Increasing levels of expenditure, universal access without means testing, a changed view of welfare recipients as not only individually responsible for their own situation, a professionalization of social workers, and a specialization of welfare initiatives. The period was, however, characterized by partnership between the state and private philanthropy, meaning that influence on various levels – social policy, the ideas guiding welfare initiatives, and the means and methods adopted in social work – was spread out across the civil society-state divide. It is the thesis of the project that a ‘moral elite’, consisting of medical doctors, priests, business men, and politicians and others, connected these different spheres and shaped central features of the developmental path toward the later welfare state. Using both quantitative (network analysis) and qualitative methods, the project aims to identify, describe, and trace the effects of this elite from ca. 1891 (first Danish pension reform) to ca. 1933 (social reform). The project is financed by the Carlsberg Foundation.

Primary research areas

• Social and welfare history
• Cultural history
• Sociology of religion
• Third sector research
• Elite studies