In everyday life, the welfare state is lived through various social benefits, services and institutions, some of which date back to earlier periods. These institutions and structures of welfare provision are based on shifting constructions of the “social”, and they contribute to special relationships between the individual and society. Thus, by focusing on the lived welfare state we call for new perspectives and conceptualisations in order to combine micro level approaches and macro analyses of society. In this collection of essays, we focus on lived institutions, lived institutional care, and encounters between individuals and institutions, ca 1700s–2000s. We explore the multilayered historicity of the welfare state from below and apply a long historical perspective on institutions and institutional care.

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The collection of essays will be published in 2022. If you wish to contribute to the collection, please send an abstract of no more than 300 words in English by February 15, 2021 to johanna.annola@tuni.fi and hanna.lindberg@tuni.fi. Please attach your affiliation and contact information to the proposal. Accepted contributors will be notified by March 5, 2021.