Bruno Palier: Breaking Our Stereotypes of France, Retirement & Rebellion

On this week’s 4-Quarter Lives Avivah Wittenberg-Cox talks with Bruno Palier, Research Director at France’s elite Sciences Po University, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics. The common government response to ageing societies around the world is to have people work longer. But ‘people’ aren’t always in agreement, nor are companies always willing to keep them. The French protests at raising the retirement age have been well covered by the international press, but not always well understood. Bruno Palier works on the comparative political economy of welfare state reforms. He has co-led a project on the differing politics of social investment around the world and another on growth and welfare in global capitalism. And his take is that France – and the French – aren’t half as unusual as the media would have us think. The unrest between employers and employees reflects systemic shifts grounded in our new demographics. It’s likely to be coming to the country you’re in. Are you ready?Bruno Palier has a PhD in Political science. He co-directed then directed Sciences Po’s Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies from 2014 to 2020. He has been Guest Professor at the University of Stockholm, Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University and at the Center for European Studies at Harvard, as well as Jean Monnet Fellow in the European University Institute in Florence. He is a member of the Executive Council of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE). Some Useful Links:* About Bruno Palier* Publication (in French): Reforming Retirement (Réformer Les Retraites)* The World Politics of Social Investment, volume 1: Welfare States in the Knowledge Economy* The World Politics of Social Investment, volume II: The Politics of Varying Social Investment Strategies* Growth and Welfare in Advanced Capitalist Economies Get full access to 4-Quarter Lives | Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe