Regional and Special Issues in Social Policy & Administration

Abstract

This article explores the emergence and elaboration of regional and special issues of Social Policy & Administration (SP&A) from the contrasting perspectives of the two editors principally involved in their production as a distinctive feature of the journal.Catherine Jones Finer, who retired from editorial involvement in 2007, writes from memory of her own experience (which featured the introduction of regional then special issues as an ongoing series) drawing on the run of printed copies of SP&A still in her possession. Bent Greve then draws on his own access to a much wider and more up-to-date range of documents to trace trends and developments over time, not merely in the content of the regional and special issues themselves, but in the increasingly international and supra-national social policy environment to which they relate.

Constantly changing Nordic welfare states: A Bermuda triangle?

“…Social Policy & Administration has a long tradition of having regional and special issues (Jones Finer & Greve, 2016) covering the world's geographical regions and many substantive issues systematically. Regional issues on the Nordic welfare states were published in 2004, 2011, 2017 (including, in that year, the Baltic countries) and now in 2022.…”

Introduction – Nordic and Baltic Welfare States

“…In this journal, there have been several regional issues on the Nordic welfare states, see Jones Finer and Greve , but there has never been a connection and attempt to try to combine and compare Nordic welfare states with the development in the Baltic states. The reason for doing so in this issue is that, historically, there has been close contact and relations between the Nordic countries and the Baltic countries.…”