This is sad news. We knew it was going to come, but still: very much too early. Bob surely lived a full life, professionally and socially, but for the rest of us: we would have needed his vision and leadership for much longer, in the difficult but incredibly important discipline of ours – which he founded - Global Social Policy (GSP).
I learned to know Bob in the late 1990s when he worked in Helsinki with GASPP (Globalism and Social Policy Programme) at STAKES, the predecessor of my current employer THL (Government of Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare). For years he was a visionary, ambitious but also pragmatic partner for us not only in the academia but also in the practical policy advocacy processes in the UN Commission for Social Development (CSocD), OECD Poverty Network (POVNET), ILO and ISSA, and in the EU and African Union expert groups.
Through all these years he encouraged me to see Global Social Policy also as an academic discipline, which I did, although I started at a late age. Bob was therefore particularly pleased when the University of Eastern Finland invited him to be my Opponent when I defended my PhD thesis titled: “From Poverty Economics to Global Social Policy”.
Bob influenced my thinking and attitude to life a lot, especially his definition of social policy as 3 R’s: rights, regulation and redistribution, and his research method of systematic process tracing. I cannot forget his radiant smile and laughter even at difficult times. He may be gone, but his influence is still there, in us and in our work: in the vision and inspiration he gave and continues to give us.
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Dr. Timo Voipio
Director, capacity development and partnerships
EU Social Protection Systems Programme (EU-SPS)
National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Government of Finland