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Global social policy demands new theories to account for its development and the different forms it takes. This chapter reviews different ways of theorising global social policy. It distinguishes between social theories concerned with the impacts of global\ud social policies on welfare outcomes and social theories concerned with why global social policy takes the forms that it does. We focus on the latter. First, we consider the possibility of globalising theories of national welfare state development. Second, we consider the opportunities to ‘welfarise’ globalist social theories that were not originally devised with the concerns of global social policy in mind. The chapter argues that a single social theory of global social policy is neither desirable nor possible, but that better integration of social theory into global social policy studies is attainable. It concludes\ud by briefly considering possible future lines of direction for thinking theoretically about global social policy.

This timely book introduces a fresh perspective on youth unemployment by analysing it as a global phenomenon. Ross Fergusson and Nicola Yeates argue that only by incorporating analysis of the dynamics of the global economy and global governance can we make convincing, comprehensive sense of these developments. The authors present substantial new evidence spanning a century pointing to the strong relationships between youth unemployment, globalisation, economic crises and consequent harms to young people’s social and economic welfare worldwide. The book notably encompasses data and analysis spanning the Global South as well as the Global North.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-gsp-10.1177_1468018120961850 for Southern social world-regionalisms: The place of health in nine African regional economic communities by Nicola Yeates and Rebecca Surender in Global Social Policy

This article critically reflects on the experience and lessons from a health-focused social policy research project (PRARI) involving a partnership spanning multiple countries across southern Africa and Europe. It asks what factors condition the efficacy of the partnership–policy nexus. The PRARI-SADC partnership case study used participatory action research (PAR) to create a regional indicators-based monitoring ‘toolkit’ of pro‑poor health policy and change for the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The article addresses the partnership drivers, features, methodological context, and process of the project, and the wider implications for constructing partnerships for social change impact. Lessons drawn from this case study underscore the importance of PAR-inspired partnership structures and working methods while querying assumptions that the relationship between PAR and policy change is ‘seamless’. We argue that greater focus is needed on the wider institutional context conditioning the work of partnerships when considering the efficacy of the partnership–policy nexus.

Region-building is a significant form of transnational collective action to pursue social policy goals. It is an integral feature of the contemporary social policy and development landscapes, and of global governance. The EU often attracts most attention in the social policy literature but a wide range of regional formations worldwide are directly relevant to social policy and development As this chapter shows, world-regional policy is by no means confined to regional trade and investment agreements, or to economic development strategies, and regional cooperation, coordination and integration strategies extend across a very wide range of social sectors. Diverse regional-level social policy mandates, competences, programmes of action, monitoring and enforcement mechanisms are at work across different regional groupings around the world. The impetus behind a reformed system of global governance built on stronger regions that is linked to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals faces major challenges. The prevailing regional development paradigm presents obstacles to regional groupings’ abilities to develop coherent socially-inclusive development strategies. There is significant scope for research capable of incorporating regionalist development strategies into social policy and development studies literatures.

The case for socially-equitable forms of regionalisation and regional integration has become stronger and more pressing. Sustainable Development Goal 17 necessitates clear and effective institutional responses in order to support rising social (and environmental) standards as well as regional programmes of long-term socio-economic investment. This article discusses the key challenges and opportunities that lay ahead in realizing this goal.