Towards a sustainable welfare system? The challenges and scenarios of eco-social transitions

In the last fifteen years, we have witnessed the development and subsequent major growth of the literature on the role of welfare policies in the ecological crisis and the so called green transition. Concepts such as sustainable welfare, just transition, eco-social policies and eco-social justice, to name just a few, have been used to portray the need for a paradigm shift. This has led some scholars to acknowledge the urgency to challenge the current unsustainable growth model and to investigate how sustainable welfare policies should address societal needs within ecological limits and from an intergenerational and global perspective. The paper highlights the foundations, challenges and current research gaps in the literature on sustainable welfare, such as empirical weaknesses; uncertainty and ambiguity; the complexity of multilevel governance arrangements; and the emerging inequalities associated with the green transition. It also introduces the main topics discussed and analysed in the six contributions collected in the Focus: Towards a Sustainable Welfare System? The Challenges and Scenarios of Eco-social Transitions published of the Journal Politiche Sociali/Social Policies. The Focus is gathering contributions from both Italian and international researchers belonging to different disciplinary communities and providing an interesting contribution to the debate.