Social services

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of social services in high and low-income countries. The article argues that social services - though having received increased attention - continue to play a rather marginal role in the conceptual and policy debates around social protection. This concerns in particular 1) the perception of social services as largely fulfilling a merely protective function with only limited consideration related to their preventative, promotive and transformative role and 2) the perception of social services and the social services workforce as being primarily services providers as opposed to pro-actively shaping social protection policies. The article concludes that social services in high and low-income countries need to be discussed in a more politicized manner, emphasizing and exploring their potential in addressing structural social and economic inequalities. Especially in low income countries, this requires including social service workers into policy planning processes and a stronger research focus on social services.