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The European Foundation on Social Quality strongly collaborates with the Asian Consortium for Social Quality The Asian Consortium for Social Quality (ACSQ) is a consortium of institutions and experts interested in developing the Social Quality theory and its practical application. Consortium Members and Representatives are:
For further information please have a look at ACSQ website www.socialquality.net |
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Collaboration with a group of Asian Universities chaired by the University of Chiba, Japan The aims of the first Asian conference on Social Quality On 27th and 28th March 2006 Chiba University in Japan (Department of Policy Studies) organised the first Asian conference on 'sustainable welfare societies'. The European Foundation was invited to contribute to the preparation of this conference and to play an active role during the conference itself. A range of public policies in Asian countries was discussed as well as the recent state of affairs of the social quality approach in Europe. The main theme was how to compare the outcomes of Asian economic, political, cultural, demographic policies discussed during the conference and how to connect this understanding with the social quality approach. The President of Chiba University opened the conference saying that 'we feel especially honoured by your presence and by the fact that you have given our university the opportunity to discuss important social issues for Asia and the Pacific regions as well as in the EU, that I hope will mark a historic landmark and serve as a reference for future academic researches and collaborations on the issues that we are about to address.' He explicitly referred to the Amsterdam Declaration of Social Quality (June 1997) as starting point to explore the idea of 'Sustainable Welfare Societies' in Asia and Europe. Professor Dr Alan Walker (chair European Foundation on Social Quality, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, UK) remarked that 'there are first, the differences and similarities between the 'European Social Model' and those of China and East Asia. (In both cases the difficulty of identifying a single model or welfare regime is acknowledged.) This leads, secondly, to a discussion of the nature of the present 'sustainability' discourse and, in particular, how it is dominated by a narrow economic agenda which is influenced to a great extent by international governmental organisations. This specific discourse is relatively new to the EU although the economic hegemony on which it is based is longstanding. In China and East Asia the 'productive' role of welfare has been a major feature of social policy since the introduction of formal welfare institutions but, so too, has political legitimacy. Under pressure from economic globalisation it is possible to observe certain convergences in policy between the EU and East Asia, although from very different historical starting points and subsequent paths of development. Examples include labour market activation and pensions policies. With regard to the latter, the primary focus of the sustainability discourse, it is argued that the 'risk' associated with population ageing has been over-emphasised, due partly to an excessive concentration on the supply side of the pensions equation. Finally, the lecture considers the potential role of social quality in balancing economic and social policy goals. It is argued that, unlike concepts such as quality of life and basic needs, it has the integrative potential to connect citizens and their needs with policy and policy makers. To enable this to happen requires a change in political culture regarding social policy - away from the mainly negative associations with individual 'welfare' towards different more positive conceptions such as social well-being and social quality.' This conference was organised by: • the Research Centre on Public Affairs for Sustainable Welfare Society, Chiba University, • European Foundation on Social Quality, With contributions by: • the Oxford University China Programme, • the Society for the Study of Social Policy, • the Japan Association for Asian Studies, • Taiwan Social Policy Association (TSPA & the Hong Kong Association of Gerontology HKAG). The complete set of abstracts of the lectures of this conference can be downloaded here: (download Abstracts of the Conference on Human Welfare and Public Policy, March 2006) >>> The paper based on the lecture by Dr. L.J.G. van der Maesen on Sustainable Welfare Societies, the Social Quality Approach as Conceptual Frame of Reference can be downloaded here. >>> The aims of the second Asian conference on social quality March 2007 In March 2007 a second Asian Social Quality conference took place, organised by the National Taiwan University, Taipei. The purpose was to continue the previous main theme as well as to start the exploration of the concept of sustainable welfare societies for Asian countries, compared to the traditional welfare state approaches in Europe. The hypothesis was that traditional welfare approaches are not suitable for comparisons of Asian and European societies. Therefore, for comparing Asian and European countries or societies a related paradigm shift is needed. The focus should be on the role of the civil society and the possibilities for sustainable well-being development in order to fully understand the recent Asian transformations as consequence of the processes of globalisation. At the first conference it was agreed to take on the supposition that the new European theory of social quality could be very functional for realising this paradigm shift and that, if applied in the European context as well, it will be highly instrumental for comparing Asian and European countries. The main topics of the conference were: • to discuss social policies from an Asian and European comparative perspective, • to establish an independent identity of social quality as the basis of public policy making, • to strengthen the human well-being based on the integration of social, economic, cultural, and democratic values and satisfaction, • to examine the role of social and public actors and organisations in shaping a sustainable welfare society (civil society and sustainable well-being development), • to deliver a point of departure for the comparative research of welfare in Asia and Europe. This conference was organised by: • The Social Policy Research Center, National Taiwan University, • The Research Centre on Public Affairs for Sustainable Welfare Society, Chiba University, • The European Foundation on Social Quality. With contributions by: • National Taiwan University • Genesis Social Welfare Foundation, Taiwan Please see also: http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~ntusprc/workshop/Eindex.htm. |
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Third Asian Social Quality Conference, Nanjing University, October 2008 In October 2008 the Social Policy Research Center of Nanjing University will in co-operation with the European Foundation on Social Quality a third Asian conference on social quality. This conference will take place on the October 24-26, 2008 and is focusing on "Social Quality in Asia and Europe: Searching for the Ways to Promote Social Cohesion and Social Empowerment". The issues discussed in this conference will include 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. The deadline for accepting abstracts for conference papers is on 30th of July, and for the full papers, by 15th of September. For the participants, the conference organizers will cover the expenses of accommodation, foods, and the cost of domestic transportation (inside China). During the conference, a meeting will also take place of the Asian Steering Committee on Social Quality. The contact persons are Dr. Hui Shen, e-mail: huishen318@sina.com, and prof. Ka Lin, e-mail: ka_lin_2004@yahoo.com.cn. Two sessions relevant to social quality theory will be part of the 2008 conference of the Human Development and Capability Association, to be held in Delhi in September. 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 will consider: (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. They will bring together researchers from several countries, including some who have been using a social quality perspective, some from the human development and/or human security perspectives, and others who provide different approaches to human well-being. A number of papers will compare social quality thinking and human development/security thinking. |
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