About the Keynote & Workshop

Ukraine is experiencing its most difficult year since the start of the war. At the same time, the debate on Ukraine's reconstruction is gaining momentum. The second Ukraine Recovery Conference will take place in Berlin from June 11 to 16, 2024.

In this context, we would like to focus on the social and socio-political issues surrounding the efforts to rebuild Ukraine through a one-day kick-off workshop at Freie Universität Berlin. Ukraine is faced with the challenge not only of securing the means to restore and reconstruct areas such as infrastructure, energy, housing, etc., but also of organizing regular, equitable and inclusive access for its citizens to social security, medical care, and welfare services. While much of the pre-war policy literature on Ukraine emphasized the problems of Ukrainian state institutions in terms of corruption, state "weakness," state "capture," and "vested interests," the wartime mobilization reveals the resilient functioning of many state services, from health care to public transportation and education. Nevertheless, problems of access to and coverage of state services abound. Furthermore, war changes the course of social policy and access to social services in ways we do not yet fully understand, but that are important: from state authorities reorganizing funding priorities and categories of entitled recipients and beneficiaries to the consequences of migration flows within Ukraine and to its neighboring countries. We, therefore, call for papers that discuss the reconstruction of Ukraine beyond the immediate war damage and provide insights into the wartime social policy approaches and dilemmas and the social and social policy challenges that are likely to have longer-term consequences for Ukrainian society and welfare arrangements.

Attending the Workshop

• If you plan to attend the events, please write a short email to Mihai Varga / mvarga@zedat.fu-berlin.de