In a world that is rapidly changing, increasingly connected and uncertain, there is a need to develop a shared applied policy analysis of welfare regimes around the globe. Research in Comparative and Global Social Policy is a series of books that addresses broad questions around how nation states and transnational policy actors manage globally shared challenges. This book series includes a wide array of contributions, which discuss comparative social policy history, development and reform within a broad international context. It invites innovative research by leading experts on all world regions and global social policy actors and aims to fulfil the objectives: to encourages cross-disciplinary approaches that develop theoretical frameworks reaching across individual world regions and global actors; to provide evidence-based good practice examples that cross the bridge between academic research and practice; and not least, to provide a platform in which a wide range of innovative methodological approaches – whether national case studies, larger-N comparative studies, or global social policy studies – can be introduced to aid the evaluation, design and implementation of future social policies.

This book edited by Timo Fleckenstein, Soohyun Lee and Young Jun Choi provides an exemplary case of cross-national comparative studies. It brings together leading experts from across two world regions, Europe and East Asia, to discuss social investment strategies – currently one of the most influential policy approaches around the world. The contributions critically discuss to what extent social investment can (or possibly cannot) tackle some of the key challenges faced by contemporary welfare states – namely greater social inequality and the decline in social mobility. By inviting a number of authors tackle the same social issue using different country cases (rather than just examining cases side by side) this volume is able not only to deepen our understanding of varieties of social investment strategies, but also discusses how some of the drawbacks connected to social investment may be overcome. The contributions tell us that, despite remarkable differences, at the level of the problems associated with social investment measures, the countries studied also show significant similarities. Furthermore, the case studies of East Asian countries provide important lessons for benchmarking or cautionary tales for more established Western welfare states as well as the emerging welfare geography in the Global South.