| About us | |
| For news of collaboration EFSQ with a number of Asian Universities please see first shared newsletter with the Asian Consortium on Social Quality. |
| Collaboration news announcement The European Foundation is pleased to announce an agreement with the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) to start a far-reaching collaboration. This will lead to a number of joint projects in an international setting, reaching further than the European context that has been the main focus in the first decade of our existence. For more detailed information please read our newsletter 8 >>>.  Picture taken on the occasion of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the ISS and the EFSQ Please note that from January 1st 2008 our new address will be: EFSQ / ISS Kortenaerkade 12 2518 AX The Hague The Netherlands Telephone +31 70 426 0460 Fax: +31 70 426 0799 Email: EFSQ@iss.nl |
 |
| New Challenges for the European Foundation on Social Quality The history The European Foundation on Social Quality was established during the Dutch Presidency of the European Union in June 1997. The small networking research infrastructure was based on the results of three European expert-meetings in the beginning of the nineties. These results were published in its first main study, The Social Quality of Europe. On June 10th 1997 at a public ceremony in Amsterdam a group of European social scientists made a solemn Declaration on the future of the European Union, based on some essential aspects of this study. The intention behind this Declaration is to remind policy-makers and citizens about the unique nature of the western European approach, which comprises both economic development (and an acceptable form of competitiveness) and social justice, equity and solidarity. The dominant emphasis on economic processes and the related specific economic orientation will lead to a downgrading of a comprehensive approach and, with it, a loss of legitimacy for the Union. More than 1000 scientists all over Europe have given their support to the Declaration and in the meantime the Foundation has grown to become a large network committed to the social quality of the European Union. |
|
| The Foundation's first stage (1996-2000) Until 2001 a manifold of projects started to theorise upon the four conditional factors of social quality as presented in the first main study namely:
|
|
| The Foundation's second stage (2001-2005) Promoting the flexicurity of Employment From 2001-2005 a new design of the theory of social quality was prepared. Issues concerning the conditional factors as well as their significance for analysing important policy domains from the social quality point of view were presented by twenty scientists in the Foundation's second main study, 'Social Quality: A Vision for Europe' published in 2001. In this period the Foundation was rewarded by DG Employment and Social Affairs in 2001, which commissioned the project of nine universities in Europe to confront the new social quality theory to the employment policies of the European Commission. The main thrust of the research concerned the 'adaptability-pillar' of the European employment policies. The objective was to develop and apply the concept of adaptability to Europe's labour markets and especially assess the tension between flexibility in working time and employment security. It referred especially to the conditional factor of social inclusion. This resulted in the study about 'flexicurity of employment in the European Union', published in the Final Report (see Employment page), and theorised upon in the double issue of the European Journal of Social Quality (see EJSQ). Indicators of social Quality, supported by DG Research The Foundation elaborated and applied the social quality indicators of the four conditional factors mentioned above in a major European project 'Indicators of Social quality', financed by DG Research of the European Commission. This network project on indicators - a collaboration of fourteen academic institutes and two international NGO's - has provided the basis for a holistic and theoretically grounded approach to the 'social quality' of daily circumstances of citizens in all member states of the EU. The outcomes were published in the network's Final Report (see Theory-indicators) and the essentials of the national reports have been published in the double issue of the European Journal of Social Quality. Public Debates in the Netherlands The European Commission as well as the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs supported the European Foundation to start analyses and public debates on the overall consequences of European policies, namely the Economic Monetary Union, the extension of the Union and the European Constitution. This took place in the framework of the project 'The Voice of Civil Europe', consisting of five Dutch NGO's under the lead of the European Foundation. The underlying idea was to preliminary apply some essential aspects of the social quality theory to the side effects of the European policies at national level. As a result of this project a new Dutch journal was published, called 'EUforum'. |
|
| The Foundation's third stage (from 2006 onwards) Collaboration with Asian universities; working towards welfare societies On the basis of the projects between 2000 and 2005 the contours of a new strategy are beginning to show. The Foundation started collaboration with universities in Japan, China, India, Taiwan and Indonesia under the invitation and lead of Chiba University in Tokyo. It contributed to the purpose and operationalisation of the first Asian conference on 'sustainable welfare societies' in March 2006. The purpose was to explore the possibilities of the social quality's conceptual framework to develop the concept of sustainable welfare societies in Asia and the European Union (see International Collaboration). An expert-group of social scientists, economists, political scientists, sociologists, lawyers, social policy scientists and philosophers is creating a sound starting point for comparative research in Asia and Europe alike. Moreover, as a result of the first Asian conference negotiations have started to transform the European Journal of Social Quality into an International Journal on Social Quality, with editors from Europe, Asia and the Pacific. This first unique conference has been followed up by a second Asian conference which took place in Taipei in March 2007, prepared by the National Taiwan University, The European Foundation and Chiba University. The purpose was to test the social quality indicators - as applied in fourteen European countries - in Asian circumstances as well as to discuss the difference of the approach of sustainable welfare societies compared to the classical European welfare state approach. Issues of ageing, employment, urban development, education systems and related public policies in Asia need quite a new understanding seen from the position of citizens. A top-down approach, logically connected with the welfare state analyses ignores certain essential aspects of social empowerment as a main conditional factor for social quality. Third Asian Social Quality Conference, Nanjing University, October 2008 In October 2008 the Social Policy Research Center of Nanjing University has organized a 3rd Asian conference on social quality in co-operation with the European Foundation on Social Quality. This conference took place on October 24-26, 2008 and focused on "Social Quality in Asia and Europe: Searching for the Ways to Promote Social Cohesion and Social Empowerment". The issues discussed in this conference included the following: 1, social quality theory, 2, the cross-nation comparison of social quality, 3, social indicators and social quality, 4, social quality and human security, 5, the society-building processes and promoting an active civil society, 6, NGOs and social empowerment. Two sessions relevant to social quality theory were part of the September 2008 conference of the Human Development and Capability Association, in Delhi. This association (see http://www.capabilityapproach.com/) promotes research on poverty, justice and well-being, building from ideas in the capability approach by authors like Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum and the related human development approach (seen in the annual Human Development Reports from UNDP and some national and local authorities). Those ideas include a central concern with the life opportunities that are in reality open to individual persons opportunities to do and be things that the persons or their representatives have reason to value. The human development perspective has been extended into 'human security' thinking, which has spread quite widely outside the UN system. The two sessions considered: (1) The treatment of 'the social' in work on human development, well-being and quality of life; (2) Whether the human development approach, including as extended in human security thinking, and the social quality approach have significant potential complementarity. Evolution of the theory including issues of sustainability A start was made for the evolution of the social quality theory based on the outcomes of the application of the new social quality indicators in fourteen European countries. The outcomes will be published in the Foundation's third main study forthcoming in 2009 (working title: 'Sustainable Welfare Societies and overall Sustainability'). In this study 'the social' as a forgotten theme in social science after the Second World War will be central to the debate on social cohesion, socio-economic security, social inclusion and social empowerment. A comparison with the 'quality of life approaches' lacking a comparable theoretically grounded elaboration will be made. This theme has been explored at the second Asian conference on social quality as well. The collaboration with Asian universities has led to a connection of the concept of 'sustainability' as presented in connection with ecological circumstances to a new understanding of political and socio-economic sustainability. Both aspects are in fact integrated and are, therefore, highly important to understand processes of globalisation. For this task a new collaboration was established with the Dutch Department of the Club of Rome as well as with the International operating Friends of the Earth. The third main study and the outcomes of the second and third Asian conference will deliver the starting points to further explore the subjective, normative and cognitive aspects of the social quality theory in order to determine the definite nature of social quality in regions and cities of Europe and Asia. Urban development and the role of citizens as an empirical challenge In strong cooperation with the Municipality of the city of The Hague in The Netherlands the Foundation was enabled to confront the theoretical and methodological output of its work to fundamentally discuss the urban development of this city and the role of its citizens. Urban development as a reciprocal result of the connection between physical and non-physical aspects of urban life is a comprehensive theme. It comprises the interconnectedness of housing, employment, educational systems, health and social care, systems for safety, cultural performances, sports, all addressing the needs and a responsible position of citizens. Lacking is a common language to connect experts from these different domains to collaborate in a comprehensive way, instead of being an addition of fragmented operations. A modern view on the role of citizens in urban circumstance as social beings is also needed. To further develop the application of the four conditional factors of social quality and related indicators a collaboration has been established with the University of Leiden (located near the city of the Hague) the Municipality of the Hague and a manifold of public and private organisations. The Foundation plays a basic role in the orchestration of this collaboration (see Urban Development). The applied strategies and results can function as core examples at European and Asian level. Related central issues will be: (i) new forms of local governance, (ii) public reform strategies and (iii) citizens' participation. In this way 'urban development' will become the most strategic focus for the theme of sustainable welfare societies as well. |
|