The COVID-19 pandemic represents a critical juncture in the development of the welfare state affirming its importance for its citizens' economic, health and wellbeing, and safety especially for its most vulnerable populations.

Goetz Ottmann is a senior social work lecturer and a member of the Future Regions Research Centre at Federation University. His research has focused on participatory, community-based social services and public policies in aged and disability care. He has extensive experience in qualitative and action research methodologies and has led several multi-methods programme evaluations. His theoretical work revolves around the application of critical social theories to a wide range of social work topics. He has held senior positions in public and private tertiary education.

Carolyn Noble is Emerita Professor of Social Work at ACAP, Sydney, and Emerita Professor of Social Work at Victoria University, Melbourne. Senior Research Associate, Johannesburg University, South Africa. She is editor-in-chief of open access social issues magazine for IASSW (www.socialdialogue.online). Her most recent books are Radicals in Australian Social Work (co-editor, Connor Court, 2017), The Challenge of Right-wing Nationalist Populism for Social Work. (co-editor, Routledge, 2020). The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work (co-editor. Routledge, 2021).

1.Post-Pandemic Social Work and the Welfare State. 2.Communovirus: Ethical community for social work in a 'post' COVID world. 3.The Modern Welfare State and the Post-Pandemic World. 4.Post-Pandemic Social Work and The Death of Neo-liberalism. 5.Social Work in the Post-COVID State: Emancipatory or the Long Arm of the Control and Coercion. 6.The convergence between neoliberalism and digital technology: Awakening individual and societal consciousness for a sustainable, resilient and just post-pandemic world. 7.Is The Genie Out of The Bottle? Societal and Political Implications of Domestic Military Deployments During the Covid-19 Pandemic. 8.Feminist Response to COVID-19: Is it time for feminist social policies? 9.Disrupting Masculinism in Public Policy Responses to COVID-19 - Unmasking the Gendered Dimensions of the Pandemic. 10.Re-imagining the Place for Social Work in the Post-Pandemic Welfare: Lessons from the Italian Experience. 11.More Trouble in a Welfare Paradise: Sweden's Problematic Welfare Policy and Practice Response to the Pandemic. 12.Multidimensional, multicultural and inclusive approaches to social welfare in post-pandemic Australia. 13.Grassroots Solidarity in Social Work: Strengthening the Welfare State beyond COVID-19 through Social Impact in the field of Child Abuse. 14.The silencing of social workers during COVID-19 emergency measures: an assessment. 15.Examining China's response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Reflections of social workers from the field. 16.Welfare policy statements during the mega-crisis: challenges for Estonia. 17.A Moment of Fuzziness: Connections between shifting notions of 'home' and welfare arrangements 'back home' for Black Zimbabwean migrants living under Covid 19 travel restrictions in Australia. 18.Covid in Black Australia. 19.Covid-19 and the Welfare State - Social Work's Practice and Policy.