CIAO DATE: 9/07
European Journal of Social Quality
Volume 3, Number 1/2 (2001)
Articles
European Integration & the Reform of Social Security in the Accession Countries
Zsuzsa FergeThe "European model" of social protection is nowhere defined yet quite often referred to. Many of its underlying values and constitutive elements are repeatedly spelt out in various documents. Let me recapitulate in a condensed way some of the core values and some of the instruments or building blocks promoting their implementation.
Community Citizenship & Community Social Quality: The British Jewish Community at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
David PhillipsIssues of loyalty, membership and belonging are pertinent to all multicultural societies and are particularly crucial for recent migrants and members of other minority communities in that they are faced with a variety of choices in organising and representing themselves vis-a-vis the majority community. Many of these issues have been discussed in the context of debates on citizenship, and particularly in relation to forms of differentiated citizenship. This paper develops and exemplifies the notion of community citizenship in analysing the strategies taken by members of migrant and other minority communities in dealing with these issues. It is argued here that in some circumstances _ particularly in times of large-scale immigration _ minority communities can optimise their social quality by undertaking activities normally performed by government agencies. An example is presented in relation to the way the British Jewish community dealt with the influx of Russian and east European Jews at the turn of the twentieth century. Some possible lessons for contemporary analysis of minority communities are then briefly discussed.
Social Quality as a Tool for Policy Analysis: The Place of Children in Family Policy
Yitzhak BermanThis paper will consider the use of social quality as an analytical tool for the study of social policy, with special emphasis on the social quality of children placed within the framework of family policy. The paper's main focus is on the relationship between parents and children as expressed through family policy. Two central themes are addressed. The first concerns the expectations from the relationship of parents and children as expressed through family policy, and how these policies enhance the social quality of children. The second theme asks the question whether social quality is a useful tool for policy analysis, and is based on a case study analysing a European family policy document.
EMU & the Social Environment
Lei DelsenOn 1 January 1999, the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was created. The currencies of 12 member countries of the European Union (EU) were first irrevocably fixed and then replaced by one European currency, the euro, earlier than the deadline of 1 July 2002. According to Article 2 of the Maastricht Treaty the aim of EMU is to promote 'sustainable and non-inflationary growth respecting the environment, a high degree of convergence of economic performance, a high level of employment and of social protection, the raising of the standard of living and quality of life, and economic and social cohesion and solidarity among Member States.' From this one may expect a positive relationship between EMU and the social environment.
Quality in the Balance: On the Adaptive & Mimetic Nature of Subjective Well-Being
Thierry Kochuyt'Quality' and 'well-being' are topical issues and part of their success is based on the suggestion that we have here hard and solid notions on which one can built a new and better society. As normative standards, they anticipate an ideal state from which the actual reality of things can be evaluated as deficient. In this light poverty appears as a sore phenomenon, an infringement of what the quality of life and well-being are all about. In an attempt to qualify this quality of life, the present article focuses on western poverty and its (lacking) sense of well-being. Turning these notions into norms, one should check if 'quality' and 'wellbeing' are transparent i.e., referring to unambiguous evaluations that can be assessed objectively. While common and moral sense supposes so, science has to doubt this assumption. The following is based on empirical research in different fields and some theoretical reflections. Bringing these together we try to identify the subjective mechanisms that trouble the notions of quality and well-being. Indeed, there are distorting forces at work, which create and abort the subjective experiences of quality and well-being and thereby nullify their evaluative potential.
Reconceptualisation of Social Quality
Anne Fairweather, Borut Roncevic, Maj Rydbjerg, Marie Valentová, Mojca ZajcSocial quality was first conceptualised and developed in the book 'The Social Quality of Europe' (Beck et al, 1997). This book, through a series of articles, develops the background to the concept and then produces a theoretical framework of social quality. Finally it critically assesses the possibilities for and problems with the concept. In the present paper, we first look at the concept of social quality itself. We then go on to examine the four components of social quality: socio-economic security, social inclusion, social cohesion and empowerment. In each section on individual components the general conceptualisation of this component is discussed, and this is followed by a discussion of how it fits into the social quality quadrant. A number of issues are then identified, that will require further research.
Review Article - Social Quality: A Vision for Europe
Heiner GanssmannA new book, 'Social Quality: A Vision for Europe', edited by Beck, van den Maesen, Thomése and Walker has just been published under the egide of the European Foundation of Social Quality (Beck et al., 2001). This book is a follow-up to 'The Social Quality of Europe', edited by Beck, van den Maesen and Walker and published in 1997 (Beck et al.,1997). Both books belong to the context of the 1997 'Amsterdam Declaration on the Social Quality of Europe', an attempt by social scientists and social policy experts to influence the political decision-makers of the European Union in the direction of an increased concern for 'social quality' (SQ) _ to complement or supersede the traditional pursuit of purely economic objectives.
Review Article - Some Preliminary Considerations about Social Cohesion & Social Quality
Laurent J.G. van der MaesenThe recently published report by Wolfgang Beck exploring the role of social cohesion in European policies (Beck, 2001) is of interest for the European Foundation on Social Quality. Indeed, in the Foundation second book, 'Social Quality: A Vision for Europe', the analysis of social cohesion is seen as a priority in the strengthening of the theoretical basis of social quality (Beck et al., 2001). The editors of this last book emphasise the fact that defining the substance of social cohesion is a delicate matter. Because of its long scientific and political history the concept has been, up to now, connected with a wide range of other concepts with related connotations, such as inclusion, exclusion, integration, disintegration, and social dissolution. Contrary to many studies on social cohesion, the way they approach social cohesion as one of the four components of social quality is not restricted to the strength or weakness of primary social relationships (Lockwood, 1999). It is connected with processes of differentiation, which create a manifold of subsystems that cannot be directly linked as such with the logic of social structures such as families, households and associations. As a result the individual subject is forced to react in a multi-inclusive way. This is becoming now even more complex since, because of the explosive development of communication technologies, the pace and place of social relationships are changing. (Beck et al., 2001:343) In this contribution we will present some elements of Beck's report and we shall connect these with herewithrelated parts of the Foundation's second book.