Gendering the Social Policy Agenda: Anti-Discrimination, Social Inclusion and Social Protection

2012 ◽  
pp. 169-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Stratigaki
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
The Social

The Slow Road to the Social Investment Perspective in the European Union

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Dinan
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Social

The European Union has no unilateral legislative capacity in the area of social policy. However, the European Commission does play the role of guide by providing a discursive framework and targets for its 28 Member States to meet. Since the late 1990’s, the EU’s ideas on social policy have moved away from the traditional social protection model towards promoting social inclusion, labour activation and investing in children. These new policies represent the social investment perspective, which advocates preparing the population for a knowledge-based economy to increase economic growth and job creation and to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. The EU began the gradual incorporation of the social investment perspective to its social dimension with the adoption of ten-year strategies. Since 2000, it has continued to set goals and benchmarks as well as offer a forum for Member States to coordinate their social initiatives. Drawing on a series of interviews conducted during a research experience in Brussels as well as official documents, this paper is a descriptive analysis of the recent modifications to the EU’s social dimension. It focuses on the changes created by the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Social Investment Package. By tracing the genesis and evolution of these initiatives, the author identifies four obstacles to social investment in the European Union's social dimension.   Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v10i1.263

scholarly journals The Slow Road to the Social Investment Perspective in the European Union

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Dinan
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Social

The European Union has no unilateral legislative capacity in the area of social policy. However, the European Commission does play the role of guide by providing a discursive framework and targets for its 28 Member States to meet. Since the late 1990’s, the EU’s ideas on social policy have moved away from the traditional social protection model towards promoting social inclusion, labour activation and investing in children. These new policies represent the social investment perspective, which advocates preparing the population for a knowledge-based economy to increase economic growth and job creation and to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. The EU began the gradual incorporation of the social investment perspective to its social dimension with the adoption of ten-year strategies. Since 2000, it has continued to set goals and benchmarks as well as offer a forum for Member States to coordinate their social initiatives. Drawing on a series of interviews conducted during a research experience in Brussels as well as official documents, this paper is a descriptive analysis of the recent modifications to the EU’s social dimension. It focuses on the changes created by the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Social Investment Package. By tracing the genesis and evolution of these initiatives, the author identifies four obstacles to social investment in the European Union's social dimension.

scholarly journals Diaspora Policies, Consular Services and Social Protection for Spanish Citizens Abroad

2020 ◽  
pp. 457-472
Author(s):  
Pau Palop-García
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Economic Hardship ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Policy Strategy ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1950S

Abstract This chapter outlines the social protection policies that Spain has adopted to target Spanish nationals abroad. First, it describes the diaspora infrastructure and the key engagement policies developed in the last years by Spain. Subsequently, the chapter focuses on five social protection policies: unemployment, health care, pensions, family-related benefits, and economic hardship. The findings reveal that Spain has adopted a diaspora strategy that targets different emigrant groups such as exiles of the Civil War and early Francoism and their descendants, Spaniards that emigrated to other European countries during the 1950s and 1960s, and new emigrants that left the country due to the consequences of the financial crisis of 2008. Findings also show that, although Spain has developed a wide array of services to target its diverse diaspora, it still lacks a comprehensive scheme of social protection abroad. Moreover, the results suggest that Spain has adopted a subsidiary social policy strategy abroad that is triggered when the social protection offered by states of reception is lacking.

scholarly journals Social protections in Slovak Republic in the first decade of the 21st century

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-63
Author(s):  
Zuzana Macková
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Social Model ◽  
European Social Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Actual Content ◽  
Major Reform

The article is a critical analysis of neoliberal approach to system of social protection in Slovakia, especially after the year of 2004, when a major reform of the Social Security Law and social policy took place. The focus is on specific sub-systems of the social protection – i.e. the system of social insurance, the system of state support and the system of social assistance – in the light of the constitutional and fundamental principles of law (liberty, equality, justice and solidarity), the actual content of the abovementioned systems of social protection and values and principles of the European social model of welfare state – and leads to author’s overview of major flaws and spaces for improvement.

scholarly journals INFORMATIZATION OF SOCIAL PROVIDING AS A MAIN ELEMENT IN THE FORMATION OF DIGITAL ECONOMY

2020 ◽  
pp. 95-106
Author(s):  
Halyna KULYNA ◽  
Nataliya NALUKOVA
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
The State ◽  
Information Space ◽  
Digital Society ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
The Social

Introduction. In the conditions of digital society formation, the informatization of the social security sphere is a necessary component and guarantee of successful implementation of social policy aimed at quality and timely satisfaction of citizens' needs. Therefore, a prerequisite for the effective functioning of social protection and public service authorities is the development and technical innovation of social services and channels for their implementation through automated information systems, should be consistent with the innovation strategy of development of the social sphere as a composite digital economy of the state. Purpose is to substantiate the expediency of application of the newest digital technologies in the sphere of social security and novelization of social services on this basis, as well as to reveal features and advantages of social protection of the population through automated information systems and channels of their implementation. Results. The necessity and role of informatization in the modern digital society and the main challenges that lead to its implementation in the field of social security have been substantiated. The key automated information systems, which contribute to the construction of a common information space of the social sphere and allow to increase social protection of the population in domestic conditions, as well as the emergence of a new service-oriented social service with a wide range of information and communication services, have been analyzed. The necessity of training and retraining of highly qualified creative specialists of new specialties was noted and generalized principles of systems of skills development in the conditions of informatization, which are important in the selection of social workers, were defined. Conclusions. Social protection and social welfare institutions, when formulating their own strategies, should consider the information and communications technology vector of development as an essential means of improving their functioning, since this will determine the effectiveness of social policy implementation in the State and the level of satisfaction of citizens with social services. The results of informatization of social processes are manifested in the implementation of automated information systems and the construction of a single unified information space of social security, the development of new service products, electronic filing of documentation and simplification of procedures for obtaining social security, transparency of social security and, as a result, successful social policy.

FINANCIAL TSUNAMI, ECONOMIC INSECURITY AND SOCIAL PROTECTION: THE CASE OF HONG KONG

2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (02) ◽  
pp. 97-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
KIM MING LEE ◽  
CHING YIN CHENG
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
The United States ◽  
Protection System ◽  
Economic Insecurity ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government

Rising economic inequality becomes an important concern for both advanced and developing countries. Nonetheless, political and business elites around the world never question the neoliberal agenda, despite economic crises happening every now and then. The year 2007 may mark the turning point of neoliberal globalisation. As the global financial tsunami kicked off from the burst of the subprime mortgage bubble in the United States in 2007, the global economy is facing an economic hardship never heard of since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Hong Kong as a highly open economy is also severely hurt by the financial tsunami. In every economic recession, all Hong Kong people suffer, but lower classes suffer most. This raises a serious question about whether the current social protection system adequately protects people against an increasingly risky global economic environment. By examining the social policy package adopted by the HK government in fighting against the financial tsunami, we show the lack of long-term strategies and commitments of the government in protecting HK people against globalisation risks and economic insecurity. By drawing experiences from other countries, we suggest that active labour market policies (ALMPs) may be the social policy tools the government can use to reform the social protection system.

Welfare Efforts in Comparative Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 52-89
Author(s):  
Ferdinand Eibl
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Welfare Provision ◽  
Regime Formation ◽  
Policy Regimes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Expenditures ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

This chapter provides an analytical overview of welfare provision in labour· abundant MENA regimes. Organized in sections by country and covering the period from regime formation until the late 2000s, the chapter pays particular attention to spending levels and the accessibility of social policies, and maps the eigbt regimes onto the three different pathways of welfare provision outlined in Chapter I. It draws on a combination of historical reports and statistics, available secondary accounts, and a novel dataset on social expenditures developed from archival material of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It also diversifies the picture by examining policies of education, health, and social protection separately. The chapter lays important groundwork for further analyses and gives a more complete sense of social policy regimes beyond the social spending figures presented in Chapter I.

Evolving meanings of “the social” in the international development agenda

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naila Kabeer
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
International Development ◽  
Development Policy ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Means And Ends ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
The Social

This paper argues that while social policy as an explicit aspect of policy discourse has relatively recent origins within the international development agenda, concerns with “the social” have featured from its very early days seeking to challenge the conflation between growth and development. The paper focuses on key international conferences and policy documents to analyse contestations over the meanings of “the social” within development policy discourse and their efforts to rethink its boundaries with “the economic”. It suggests that these contestations have helped to spell out the basic outlines of an alternative policy agenda in which concerns with “the social” have come to define both the means and ends of development.

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