The talk will address the deep changes that have been affecting welfare states in advanced democracies in the past decades. Globalization, deindustrialization, rising public debts, demographic changes as well as changes in gender and family arrangements challenge the ways in which welfare states have traditionally defined and addressed “social risks” and granted “social citizenship”. At both the theoretical and policy level, welfare state goals and instruments are being redefined, although with different timings, intensity and coherence across different welfare regimes.