Eco-Social Policies and Work in the Poly-Crisis: Sustainable Welfare in a Conflicting Ecological Transition

Dear Colleagues,

In the wake of the 21st century, it has become clear that rapid demographic, social, economic, and ecological changes are occurring in interconnected ways. This awareness has prompted international organizations, national and local policy makers and stakeholders to develop strategies that jointly tackle social, economic and ecological challenges (Schulze Waltrup et al., 2025), addressing the “institutional missing link” between the environmental and social domains (Boström, 2012).

Eco-social policies, explicitly pursuing both environmental and social policy goals in an integrated way (Mandelli, 2022), started to emerge. At the same time, the acknowledgement of the connections between environmental health and human well-being has led to the development of more ecologically and socially sustainable models of local socio-political practices (eco-social work; Matthies and Narhi, 2017).

Against this background, welfare state scholars have increasingly focused on if and how social policies are being transformed (Gough, 2017) to integrate ecological principles and move toward sustainable welfare (Hirvilammi and Koch, 2020). However, such an object of study has not yet established itself, while research in this field needs to expand and embed its lens in the complex dynamics of the current poly-crisis (Cucca et al., 2023; Fritz and Lee, 2023; Snell et al. 2023): the deepening ecological crisis (e.g., loss of biodiversity, Keck et al., 2025; likely breaching 1.5°C temperature threshold, WMO, 2025a; increasing extreme events, WMO, 2025b); the growing armed, trade and migration conflicts and the growing climate–conflict–(in)security nexus (Conca and Dabelko, 2024); the chaotic dynamics in global value chains (automotive, energy, agriculture, fashion, digitization); the shift in political attention from ecological concerns to rearmament (Wik and Neal, 2024); and the combined effects of climate change and the rapid ageing of the population on health and care needs (WHO, 2022).

In such a difficult context, we know little about the way eco-social policies and eco-social work practices emerge and diffuse, how they relate with pre-existing policies, innovations and disruptions, and to what extent they may reach their multiple goals dealing with conflicting eco-social transitions  on the ground (Benegiamo et al., 2023).

This Special Issue welcomes interdisciplinary contributions that address one or more of the following questions:

- What institutional, political and social factors and actors mobilize, support and hinder the development of eco-social policies and work?

- What are the missing links between social policies and social work from an eco-social perspective? Where, instead, are they being overtaken and what are the underlying factors? How do eco-social oriented policies and work interact with existing social welfare?

- How do eco-social oriented policies and work fail or succeed in addressing the above-mentioned growing tensions, conflicts and crisis factors? How do they deal with increasingly diverse eco-social risks?

- Whether and how the transitions in some economic sectors drive changes in social welfare designs and possible entanglements with corporate welfare (Farnsworth 2013).

Articles with historical and/or comparative (cross-country or cross-sector) approaches, as well as local and trans-local case studies, are particularly welcome.

References

Benegiamo M., Guillibert P., Villa M. (2023) (eds.), Work and welfare transformations in the climate crisis: A research pathway towards an ecological, just transition, Sociologia del lavoro, 165(1), pp. 9–29, https://doi.org/10.3280/SL2023-165001oa

Boström, M. (2012), A Missing pillar? Challenges in Theorizing and Practicing Social Sustainability, Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy, n. 8(1), pp. 3–14, https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2012.11908080.

Conca, K., & Dabelko, G. D. (2024), The international (in)security order and the climate-conflict-security nexus. Environment and Security, 2(4), 501–524. https://doi.org/10.1177/27538796241287358

Cucca, R., Kazepov, Y., Villa, M. (2023) (eds.), Towards a sustainable welfare system? The challenges and scenarios of eco-social transitions, Introduction to Special Issue, Social Policy, 1/2023, pp. 3–26, https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.7389/107136.

Farnsworth K. (2013), Bringing Corporate Welfare In, Journal of Social Policy, January 2013, pp.1–22, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279412000761.

Fritz, M., & Lee, J. (2023), Introduction to the special issue: Tackling inequality and providing sustainable welfare through eco-social policies, European Journal of Social Security, 25(4), 315–327. https://doi.org/10.1177/13882627231213796.

Gough, I. [2017], Heat, greed, and human need: Climate change, capitalism, and sustainable wellbeing, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar.

Hirvilammi, T., & Koch, M. (2020). Sustainable Welfare beyond Growth. Sustainability, 12(5),1824.

Keck, F., Peller, T., Alther, R. et al. (2025), The global human impact on biodiversity, Nature (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08752-2.

Mandelli, M. (2022). Understanding eco-social policies: a proposed definition and typology. Transfer, 28(3), 333–348.

Matthies A.-L. Närhi K. (2017), The Ecosocial Transition of Societies. The contribution of social work and social policy, London, Routledge.

Snell C, Anderson S, Thomson H. If Not Now, Then When? Pathways to Embed Climate Change Within Social Policy. Social Policy and Society. 2023;22(4):675–694. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746423000167.

Waltrup, R. S., Gengnagel, V., Zimmermann, K., & Kaasch, A. (2025). Setting the scene in Europe: Emerging national and transnational social policy responses to climate change. Global Social Policy, 25(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/14680181241312557.

WHO (2022) The UN Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021-2030 in a Climate-changing World, January 14, 2022.

Wik, T. M., & Neal, A. W. (2024). The prioritisation of climate security: A content analysis of national security agendas. Environment and Security, 3(1), 33–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/27538796241257554.

WMO (2025a), State of the Global Climate 2024, Report, © World Meteorological Organization, Geneva

WMO (2025a), Significant Weather & Climate Events 2024, Report, © World Meteorological Organization, Geneva

Dr. Barbara Da Roit
Dr. Matteo Villa
Dr. Elisa Matutini
Guest Editors

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