The WG maps the intellectual and ethical traditions – e.g., social Catholicism, socialism, paternalism, feminism – that have been at the basis of social policies across Europe, their spatial trajectories, the influences, entanglements and adaptations among them. It is the contention of this action that mapping these trajectories will deconstruct the dominant idea of distinct national models in European social policy. This group also collates and compares the existing research on the state of the art of the various national welfare contexts of Action members. This research is often not available to an audience outside a particular national context as research and archival sources are only available in local languages. The collation of various national states of the art will constitute the basis for reconsidering the history of social provision, voluntary associations, families and the state in Europe during the period under consideration.