Europe is facing many challenges arising from the economic crisis, globalisation and an ageing society. Social policy throughout Europe is adapting in response. Professor Joakim Palme will reflect on the variety of political, social and economic forces at play and provide an overview of the record and potential of ‘social investment’ approaches. He will ask whether the recently promoted European social investment strategy is able to generate employment, build social inclusion and renew the welfare state. This lecture will be chaired by Professor Peter Whiteford from the Social Policy Institute.

Joakim Palme, a leading Nordic social policy figure, was appointed Professor of Political Science at the Department of Government, Uppsala University in 2009. He holds a BA in economic history and PhD in sociology from Stockholm University.

Professor Palme has been a central figure at the Swedish Institute for Social Research at Stockholm University throughout the 1990s, where he also served as Adjunct Professor from 2003 to 2009. From 1999 to 2001 Professor Palme chaired the Swedish Welfare Commission which published a series of volumes on welfare state policies. From 2002 to 2011 he was the Director of the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford in 1990, University of New South Wales in 1996 and the European University Institute in 1999 and has been a honorary Professor at the University of Southern Denmark since 2009.

Currently Professor Palme is President of Research Committee 19 on ‘Poverty, social welfare and social policy’ of the International Sociological Association, Board Member at the University of Bergen and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.

The visit of Professor Joakim Palme to Australia is supported by the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.