The COVID-19 turmoil came with more universal and arguably more progressive social policy interventions across developing and advanced economies. For example, never before have solutions such as Universal Basic Income been entertained so seriously in policy debates, and indeed experimented with at such a scale.

This podcast is on universalism and social policy in the context of the current crisis. It debates:

· Whether the shift towards more universalist solutions will survive the immediate COVID-19 crisis and is viable in the longer run;

· What are the concrete policies that might take root and is UBI one of them;

· How the COVID-19 crisis altered the public conceptualization of risk, disadvantage, and need for policies to protect against/manage such; and

· How, by pushing so many more into disadvantage and exposing risks, COVID-19 might have lifted some of the stigmatization and shame attached to need and disadvantage  – an issue that has traditionally affected the social policy practice.

The expert is Robert Walker, Professor Emeritus of the University of Oxford and current Professor of Social Policy at the Beijing Normal University.

The host is John Crowley, UNESCO's chief of Research, Policy, and Foresight.