Inclusive Welfare State Research: Longitudinal Work-Injury Policy Data in 188 Countries Since the Industrial Revolution

This chapter introduces the Global Work-Injury Policy Database Longitudinal (gwip_long v1) tracking the development, coverage, and generosity of work-injury compensation laws in 188 countries since the Industrial Revolution. The Global South is home to nearly 80% of humanity and now surpasses the North in total GDP. The field of welfare state research is dominated by studies centered on and in the Global North. This disjuncture is both a scientific gap in welfare state knowledge, and a paradigm misalignment. Scientifically the gwip_long data provides an opportunity to investigate labor, institutions, social welfare and track trajectories in Global South countries and regions where this was not previously possible. As such it can address North/South knowledge and paradigm gaps. I encourage scholars to consider these gaps when using the data. In this chapter, I also demonstrate two use cases for the data grounded in postcolonial theory: 1), testing the impact of colonial institutions by colonizer, and 2) testing the logic of colonial extraction based on the number of persons forcibly enslaved and removed from African countries. I briefly discuss how postcolonial research is an important knowledge bridge but may not go as far as anti-colonial theory in uprooting existing knowledge structures, and this is an important distinction worth considering whenever engaging in global research.