Elke Heins
Biographic Data
| ID | 4238501 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Elke Heins |
| GIVEN NAMES | Elke |
| FAMILY NAME | Heins |
| SIGNATURE | HEINS E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8511-6544 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 123 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
A failed insurrection? An institutional analysis of the creation of the European Union Social Convergence Framework
This article examines the creation of the European Union’s (EU) Social Convergence Framework (SCF), introduced in 2024 as part of reforms to the EU’s economic governance system. Building on debates about the “socialisation” of the European Semester, we analyse why the SCF succeeded where the previously proposed Social Imbalances Procedure (SIP) failed. Taking a historical institutionalist approach and drawing on theories of gradual institutional …
Constrained divergence in multi-level systems: The case of skill formation in the United Kingdom
This article introduces the concept of ‘constrained divergence’ to examine how nationally bounded welfare regimes and growth models limit subnational policy divergence despite a clear intention to achieve policy outcomes different from those at the centre. We illustrate the concept through the example of skill formation in the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales within the welfare regime and growth model of the United Kingdom. We find signific…
Get Britain Working? Continuity and Change in Labour’s Post-2024 Welfare and Employment Strategy
From manifesto pledges to election victory in 2024, the Labour Party has positioned ‘spiralling economic inactivity’ as the central employment and welfare challenge. This article critically examines Labour’s first year in power, with a focus on employment policies at the intersection of in-work poverty, economic insecurity, and inactivity. We begin by outlining the current labour market context, questioning the narrative underpinning Labour’s wel…
A green but also just transition? Variations in social and industrial policy responses to industrial decarbonisation in EU member states
The EU aims for net carbon neutrality by 2050. Since industry contributes substantially to carbon emissions, reforms to decarbonise industry are necessary to achieve this goal. However, these reforms may entail labour market costs in the form of unemployment, which may necessitate social policies to mitigate them. Our article provides a novel contribution to the existing literature by developing a framework to classify how these policy responses …
Policy, power and pandemic: Varieties of job and income protection responses to Covid-19 in Western Europe
What explains variation in governments’ policy choices to protect jobs and incomes at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in Western Europe? Departing from existing literature that emphasises path-dependency, this article proposes a dynamic model of policy-making in a major emergency. Building on the idea that governments face a trade-off between targeting and reversibility, the article develops a framework that accounts for both continuity and ch…
Varieties of Just Transition? Eco-Social Policy Approaches at the International Level
‘Just transition’ is a concept originally developed by the labour movement to reconcile workers’ rights with the necessity to combat climate change. More recently, supra- and international organisations have also adopted this idea. However, it remains unclear to what extent these actors follow the eco-social ambitions of organised labour. In this article, we develop a conceptual framework to capture diverse just transition approaches by distingui…
Unemployment benefit governance, trade unions and outsider protection in conservative welfare states
This article explores the relationship between trade union governance roles in unemployment benefit systems, their power resources and their capacity to counteract liberalising and dualising trends in the labour market in conservative welfare states with compulsory unemployment insurance. Against received wisdom, this article argues that in the 21st century trade unions in continental Europe have generally sought to combat the dualism to which th…
Introduction: EU constraints and opportunities in the Covid-19 pandemic—the politics of NGEU
Voices from the past: Economic and political vulnerabilities in the making of next generation EU
In this article, we show that Next Generation EU (NGEU) is mainly a response to the economic and political imbalances left over from the Eurozone crisis. It is a pre-emptive intervention, especially targeted at structurally weak economies with rising Euroscepticism, to avoid costly ex-post bailouts as in the Great Recession. We demonstrate, using quantitative analysis, that pre-existing vulnerabilities, rather than the impact of the pandemic, dro…
The Journal of Social Policy Turns 50 - Time for Reflections and Looking to the Future
When we began discussing how to mark the th anniversary of the Journal of Social Policy, we reflected on how the journal has provided a platform to showcase top-quality research in Social Policy and been a resource to successive generations of academics, practitioners and policy makers. Naturally, Social Policy has changed over the past yearsand so has the journal. One of the reasons for a strong continued presence of Social Policy in the UK is i…
Social Policy Review 30: Analysis and Debate in Social Policy, 2018
Social Policy Review 30: Analysis and Debate in Social Policy 2018
Handbook of European Social Policy
This Handbook brings together leading scholars of European social policy to reinvigorate theoretical, conceptual and substantive debates around European welfare states and societies as well as the `social dimension' of the European Union. This unique and original collection comes together at a time of substantial economic, social and political turbulence across Europe, changing narratives, ideas and attitudes towards welfare, increasing instituti…
The Sovereign Debt Crisis, the EU and Welfare State Reform
This book offers a much-needed analysis of how the European Union (EU) has affected welfare state reforms in the Member States most severely hit by the 2008 economic crisis. Bringing together leading
A New Era of European Integration? Governance of Labour Market and Social Policy Since the Sovereign Debt Crisis
In this chapter we develop a typology of European Union (EU) integration to capture how, to what extent and according to which policy aims EU involvement in Member States has altered with respect to labour market and social policy and what it signifies in terms of institutional change. On this basis, first we show that new instruments—the Six-Pack, Fiscal Compact and Two-Pack—have been layered onto the existing institutional framework governing t…
Best of Both Worlds’? A Comparison of Third Sector Providers in Health Care and Welfare‐to‐Work Markets in Britain
This article compares the welfare markets in primary health care and ‘welfare‐to‐work’ in the UK since the late 1990s. A longitudinal comparison of two different policy areas enables us to study the context in which marketization and the resulting shift of welfare provision takes place. We outline the general background of the market‐based reforms and highlight in what way policymakers have ascribed third sector organizations ( TSOs ) a number of…
A new era of European Integration? Governance of labour market and social policy since the sovereign debt crisis
The sovereign debt crisis, the EU and welfare state reform
A Review of the Evidence of Third Sector Performance and Its Relevance for a Universal Comprehensive Health System
UK policy promotes third sector organisations as providers of NHS funded health and social care. We examine the evidence for this policy through a systematic literature review. Our results highlight several problems of studies comparing non-profits with other provider forms, questioning their usefulness for drawing lessons outside the place of study. Most studies deem contextual factors and the regulatory framework in which providers operate as m…
Politiques sociales et dévolution des pouvoirs: L'exemple écossais
Du fait de la dévolution mise en œuvre à la fin des années 1990, qui a accru les divergences de politiques au Royaume-Uni, il est de plus en plus difficile de parler d’une politique sociale unitaire dans ce pays. En effet, les politiques publiques élaborées dans les trois régions non anglaises (Écosse, pays de Galles et Irlande du Nord) diffèrent parfois substantiellement de celles décidées au Parlement de Londres (Westminster). S’appuyant sur l’…
A new era of European Integration? Governance of labour market and social policy since the sovereign debt crisis
Voices from the past: Economic and political vulnerabilities in the making of next generation EU
In this article, we show that Next Generation EU (NGEU) is mainly a response to the economic and political imbalances left over from the Eurozone crisis. It is a pre-emptive intervention, especially targeted at structurally weak economies with rising Euroscepticism, to avoid costly ex-post bailouts as in the Great Recession. We demonstrate, using quantitative analysis, that pre-existing vulnerabilities, rather than the impact of the pandemic, dro…
The sovereign debt crisis, the EU and welfare state reform
Varieties of Just Transition? Eco-Social Policy Approaches at the International Level
‘Just transition’ is a concept originally developed by the labour movement to reconcile workers’ rights with the necessity to combat climate change. More recently, supra- and international organisations have also adopted this idea. However, it remains unclear to what extent these actors follow the eco-social ambitions of organised labour. In this article, we develop a conceptual framework to capture diverse just transition approaches by distingui…
Introduction: EU constraints and opportunities in the Covid-19 pandemic—the politics of NGEU
Policy, power and pandemic: Varieties of job and income protection responses to Covid-19 in Western Europe
What explains variation in governments’ policy choices to protect jobs and incomes at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in Western Europe? Departing from existing literature that emphasises path-dependency, this article proposes a dynamic model of policy-making in a major emergency. Building on the idea that governments face a trade-off between targeting and reversibility, the article develops a framework that accounts for both continuity and ch…
A green but also just transition? Variations in social and industrial policy responses to industrial decarbonisation in EU member states
The EU aims for net carbon neutrality by 2050. Since industry contributes substantially to carbon emissions, reforms to decarbonise industry are necessary to achieve this goal. However, these reforms may entail labour market costs in the form of unemployment, which may necessitate social policies to mitigate them. Our article provides a novel contribution to the existing literature by developing a framework to classify how these policy responses …
Best of Both Worlds’? A Comparison of Third Sector Providers in Health Care and Welfare‐to‐Work Markets in Britain
This article compares the welfare markets in primary health care and ‘welfare‐to‐work’ in the UK since the late 1990s. A longitudinal comparison of two different policy areas enables us to study the context in which marketization and the resulting shift of welfare provision takes place. We outline the general background of the market‐based reforms and highlight in what way policymakers have ascribed third sector organizations ( TSOs ) a number of…
The Journal of Social Policy Turns 50 - Time for Reflections and Looking to the Future
When we began discussing how to mark the th anniversary of the Journal of Social Policy, we reflected on how the journal has provided a platform to showcase top-quality research in Social Policy and been a resource to successive generations of academics, practitioners and policy makers. Naturally, Social Policy has changed over the past yearsand so has the journal. One of the reasons for a strong continued presence of Social Policy in the UK is i…
A Review of the Evidence of Third Sector Performance and Its Relevance for a Universal Comprehensive Health System
UK policy promotes third sector organisations as providers of NHS funded health and social care. We examine the evidence for this policy through a systematic literature review. Our results highlight several problems of studies comparing non-profits with other provider forms, questioning their usefulness for drawing lessons outside the place of study. Most studies deem contextual factors and the regulatory framework in which providers operate as m…
Politiques sociales et dévolution des pouvoirs: L'exemple écossais
Du fait de la dévolution mise en œuvre à la fin des années 1990, qui a accru les divergences de politiques au Royaume-Uni, il est de plus en plus difficile de parler d’une politique sociale unitaire dans ce pays. En effet, les politiques publiques élaborées dans les trois régions non anglaises (Écosse, pays de Galles et Irlande du Nord) diffèrent parfois substantiellement de celles décidées au Parlement de Londres (Westminster). S’appuyant sur l’…
A new era of European Integration? Governance of labour market and social policy since the sovereign debt crisis
The sovereign debt crisis, the EU and welfare state reform
The Sovereign Debt Crisis, the EU and Welfare State Reform
This book offers a much-needed analysis of how the European Union (EU) has affected welfare state reforms in the Member States most severely hit by the 2008 economic crisis. Bringing together leading
A New Era of European Integration? Governance of Labour Market and Social Policy Since the Sovereign Debt Crisis
In this chapter we develop a typology of European Union (EU) integration to capture how, to what extent and according to which policy aims EU involvement in Member States has altered with respect to labour market and social policy and what it signifies in terms of institutional change. On this basis, first we show that new instruments—the Six-Pack, Fiscal Compact and Two-Pack—have been layered onto the existing institutional framework governing t…
Best of Both Worlds’? A Comparison of Third Sector Providers in Health Care and Welfare‐to‐Work Markets in Britain
This article compares the welfare markets in primary health care and ‘welfare‐to‐work’ in the UK since the late 1990s. A longitudinal comparison of two different policy areas enables us to study the context in which marketization and the resulting shift of welfare provision takes place. We outline the general background of the market‐based reforms and highlight in what way policymakers have ascribed third sector organizations ( TSOs ) a number of…
Handbook of European Social Policy
This Handbook brings together leading scholars of European social policy to reinvigorate theoretical, conceptual and substantive debates around European welfare states and societies as well as the `social dimension' of the European Union. This unique and original collection comes together at a time of substantial economic, social and political turbulence across Europe, changing narratives, ideas and attitudes towards welfare, increasing instituti…
Social Policy Review 30: Analysis and Debate in Social Policy, 2018
Social Policy Review 30: Analysis and Debate in Social Policy 2018
Unemployment benefit governance, trade unions and outsider protection in conservative welfare states
This article explores the relationship between trade union governance roles in unemployment benefit systems, their power resources and their capacity to counteract liberalising and dualising trends in the labour market in conservative welfare states with compulsory unemployment insurance. Against received wisdom, this article argues that in the 21st century trade unions in continental Europe have generally sought to combat the dualism to which th…
Introduction: EU constraints and opportunities in the Covid-19 pandemic—the politics of NGEU
Voices from the past: Economic and political vulnerabilities in the making of next generation EU
In this article, we show that Next Generation EU (NGEU) is mainly a response to the economic and political imbalances left over from the Eurozone crisis. It is a pre-emptive intervention, especially targeted at structurally weak economies with rising Euroscepticism, to avoid costly ex-post bailouts as in the Great Recession. We demonstrate, using quantitative analysis, that pre-existing vulnerabilities, rather than the impact of the pandemic, dro…
The Journal of Social Policy Turns 50 - Time for Reflections and Looking to the Future
When we began discussing how to mark the th anniversary of the Journal of Social Policy, we reflected on how the journal has provided a platform to showcase top-quality research in Social Policy and been a resource to successive generations of academics, practitioners and policy makers. Naturally, Social Policy has changed over the past yearsand so has the journal. One of the reasons for a strong continued presence of Social Policy in the UK is i…
Varieties of Just Transition? Eco-Social Policy Approaches at the International Level
‘Just transition’ is a concept originally developed by the labour movement to reconcile workers’ rights with the necessity to combat climate change. More recently, supra- and international organisations have also adopted this idea. However, it remains unclear to what extent these actors follow the eco-social ambitions of organised labour. In this article, we develop a conceptual framework to capture diverse just transition approaches by distingui…
Policy, power and pandemic: Varieties of job and income protection responses to Covid-19 in Western Europe
What explains variation in governments’ policy choices to protect jobs and incomes at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in Western Europe? Departing from existing literature that emphasises path-dependency, this article proposes a dynamic model of policy-making in a major emergency. Building on the idea that governments face a trade-off between targeting and reversibility, the article develops a framework that accounts for both continuity and ch…
A green but also just transition? Variations in social and industrial policy responses to industrial decarbonisation in EU member states
The EU aims for net carbon neutrality by 2050. Since industry contributes substantially to carbon emissions, reforms to decarbonise industry are necessary to achieve this goal. However, these reforms may entail labour market costs in the form of unemployment, which may necessitate social policies to mitigate them. Our article provides a novel contribution to the existing literature by developing a framework to classify how these policy responses …
A failed insurrection? An institutional analysis of the creation of the European Union Social Convergence Framework
This article examines the creation of the European Union’s (EU) Social Convergence Framework (SCF), introduced in 2024 as part of reforms to the EU’s economic governance system. Building on debates about the “socialisation” of the European Semester, we analyse why the SCF succeeded where the previously proposed Social Imbalances Procedure (SIP) failed. Taking a historical institutionalist approach and drawing on theories of gradual institutional …
Constrained divergence in multi-level systems: The case of skill formation in the United Kingdom
This article introduces the concept of ‘constrained divergence’ to examine how nationally bounded welfare regimes and growth models limit subnational policy divergence despite a clear intention to achieve policy outcomes different from those at the centre. We illustrate the concept through the example of skill formation in the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales within the welfare regime and growth model of the United Kingdom. We find signific…
Get Britain Working? Continuity and Change in Labour’s Post-2024 Welfare and Employment Strategy
From manifesto pledges to election victory in 2024, the Labour Party has positioned ‘spiralling economic inactivity’ as the central employment and welfare challenge. This article critically examines Labour’s first year in power, with a focus on employment policies at the intersection of in-work poverty, economic insecurity, and inactivity. We begin by outlining the current labour market context, questioning the narrative underpinning Labour’s wel…
Political science (16 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (14 works) · Economics (12 works) · European union (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Economic policy (7 works) · Social policy (7 works) · Market economy (6 works) · Sociology (6 works)