Welfare States as Transition Regimes: Reconstruction from International Comparisons of Young People’s Transitions to Work

Abstract

International comparison of welfare states offers a way for understanding how welfare states have contributed to the constitution of life course transitions and the different ways in which they are being shaped. The chapter introduces the concept of “transition regimes”, a comparative model developed with regard to school-to-work-transitions. The aim is to question if and to what extent this model can contribute to the objectives of reflexive transition research that extends the research of how individual transitions progress to how they are constantly re-constituted. In detail, this implies relating the analysis of comprehensive constellations with the discursive, institutional and individual practices involved in doing transitions. The chapter starts with an overview of international studies of school-to-work-transitions. This is followed by a review of comparative welfare research and the introduction of the concept of transition regimes, which is then related to the concept of doing transitions. The conclusion explores the contribution of comparative analysis of transition regimes for reflexive transition research.