Population ageing has become one of the major structural challenges reshaping welfare states, social protection systems, and public administration across both OECD countries and the Global South. Declining fertility rates, longer life expectancy, changing family structures, labour market informality, fiscal pressures, and rising care needs are placing increasing demands on pension systems, health care provision, long-term care arrangements, and broader old-age social protection.
Although ageing is a global trend, countries are dealing with this transformation under very different institutional, fiscal, demographic, and political conditions. Critically, many OECD countries have had more time to adapt while countries of the Global South are addressing this challenge facing much adverse structural, fiscal and labour market conditions. This makes comparison between OECD and the Global South more interesting to see what lessons be learned from their experiences.
This panel invites papers that examine how social policies are being designed, implemented, contested, and reformed in response to population ageing. We are particularly interested in contributions that connect policy change with implementation challenges, institutional capacity, political conflict, social inequality, and democratic accountability. The panel welcomes theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions addressing, among others, the following topics:
• Pension reforms, including changes to public and private pillars, and the expansion of non-contributory pensions;
• Old-age income security, coverage gaps, gender inequalities, benefit adequacy, poverty reduction, and inequality among older persons;
• Long-term care policies, family-based care, and the role of public, private, and non-profit providers;
• Health care access, ageing-related health needs, dependency, and the integration of health and social care systems;
• Family policies, including changes to broader support policies to reconcile work and family.
• Policy learning, diffusion, transfer, and adaptation between oecd countries and the global south.
The panel welcomes single-country studies, subnational analyses, cross-national comparisons, and cross-regional contributions. By bringing together scholars working on pensions, social protection, care policy, health policy, and comparative public policy, the panel seeks to foster a cross-regional dialogue on how societies govern ageing under conditions of uncertainty, inequality, and institutional change. In so doing the aim of the panel is to understand how welfare institutions, social rights, and state capacity are being reshaped.
