From Productivism to Post-Productivism
Unpacking the Socio-Economic Conditions for Welfare Development in Six East Asian Economies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10382146 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nan Yang (0000-0001-6681-6836, Liaoning University), Stefan Kühner (0000-0001-6598-6526, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Lingnan University, Hong Kong SAR, China, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-25 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00323217251369291 |
| OpenAlex | W4414524207 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 53 |
Twenty-five years ago, Ian Holliday introduced the ‘Productivist Welfare Capitalism’ (PWC) thesis in Political Studies , challenging the classification of the East Asian welfare regime alongside Western models. Debate persists over whether East Asian societies still fit the ‘productivist’ label or how to define a potential ‘post-productivist’ era. This article examines five causal conditions – economic growth, population ageing, economic globalisation, unemployment and deindustrialisation – to analyse the factors driving welfare development in mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), it finds that since the turn of the century (2000–2021), economic growth is no longer a prerequisite for welfare expansion in these economies, challenging the basic tenet of the PWC thesis. Instead, population ageing and integration into the global economy have driven welfare expansion across East Asia, reflecting a general transformation towards addressing emergent welfare needs in the region
Employment and Welfare Studies · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Redesigning Social Inquiry
Miti and the Japanese Miracle
Wellbeing in Developing Countries
SetMethods
The Demographic Dividend
Post‐Industrial Pressures on the Mature Welfare States
Welfare Capitalism in East Asia
Social Welfare Development in East Asia
Welfare States in Transition
International Circumstances as Factors in Building a Welfare State
QCA with R
Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences
East Asia in transition
Reforming public pensions in democratizing Korea and Taiwan
Is the East Asian Welfare Model still productive
The KOF Globalisation Index – revisited
Beyond the Limits of the Productivist Regime
Social investment in the knowledge-based economy
Do Party Governments Matter After All? Executive Ideology, Constitutional Structures and their Combined Effect on Welfare State Change
Poverty alleviation, coverage and fiscal sustainability
Introduction
The East Asian welfare model
The Korean welfare state
Comparative mainstreaming? Mapping the uses of the comparative method in social policy, sociology and political science since the 1970s
Social Politics of Welfare Reform in Korea and Japan
Industrialization and Welfare
Analyzing the Productive and Protective Dimensions of Welfare
Changing Welfare Regimes in East and Southeast Asia
The Productivist Construction of Selective Welfare Pragmatism in China
The industrialisation thesis, revisited
Partisan ideology, veto players and their combined effect on productive and protective welfare policy
Set Relations in Social Research
The three worlds of welfare capitalism
The Causes of Welfare State Expansion
Why Do Welfare States Persist
Productivist Welfare Capitalism
East Asian social policy in the wake of the financial crisis
Fragmented Welfare States
Globalization, Veto Players, and Welfare Spending
Political Partisanship and Welfare State Reform in Advanced Industrial Societies
The productive and protective dimensions of welfare in Asia and the Pacific
Globalization and support for unemployment spending in Asia
Transforming the Developmental Welfare State in East Asia
Strategic Factors in Economic Development
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |