Models
Social insurance, Germany
In the 1880s Germany made insurance against sickness, accident, and old age compulsory, the model most welfare states adapted.
wiki: welfare stateFolk high schools, Denmark
N. F. S. Grundtvig’s schools for adults, from 1844 on, taught through conversation with no exams, and shaped adult education across the Nordic countries. See andragogy.
wiki: folk high schoolUniversal health and compulsory voting, Australia
Australia made voting compulsory in 1924 and health care universal through Medicare in 1984.
wiki: Medicare (Australia)Umuganda, Rwanda
On the last Saturday of each month, communities across Rwanda do shared public work, a civic practice with roots in older tradition.
wiki: UmugandaTruth and reconciliation, South Africa
After apartheid, a public commission heard testimony from victims and perpetrators, an approach grounded partly in Ubuntu and since adapted by other countries.
wiki: TRC
Fields / Regional Lens
Models of Social Infrastructure
The social infrastructure Americans live inside, and argue about, was often invented elsewhere. Germany built social insurance; Denmark built schools for adults; Australia made health care universal and voting compulsory; Rwanda and South Africa built civic practices of shared work and reconciliation. This lens collects those models, because the way a society supports learning and care decides who gets to learn at all.