scholarly journals Why Multilingualism and Multilingual Communication Jeopardize a Common Social Policy for Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-23
Author(s):  
László Marácz
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Financial Economic ◽  
Language Games ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
Multilingual Communication ◽  
Political Cultures

AbstractThis paper studies the consequences of European multilingualism and multilingual communication for a common social policy in the Europe Union. In the past fifty years, the main focus of the Europeanization project has been on financial-economic developments and less on a common social policy. Even today, there is no common framework for social protection in the European Union. Common minimum income or wages for European citizens are lacking. In this paper, it will be argued that the lack of social protection has to do with Europe’s linguistic diversity. Language is seen as a building block of national communities and their political cultures. The European integration project can only continue if different European political cultures are shared. However, due to the fact that a neutral lingua franca is lacking, this has been unsuccessful so far. The interaction of social groups that have a different language repertoire with the structures of multilevel governance are responsible for the fact that some of these social groups, including the ‘Eurostars’, and national cosmopolitans benefit from social protection, whereas other groups lacking relevant language skills, such as anti-establishment forces, commoners, and migrants, are excluded from the European power domains. These power configurations can be fruitfully studied in the floral figuration model. Consequently, due to these patterns of inclusion and exclusion, true solidarity among European citizens is not within reach. These claims will be illustrated by a case study on the Netherlands, a country that has been pursuing neoliberal policies counterbalancing Eurozone and economic crises and is trying to assimilate migrants and other newcomers. Apart from assimilatory policies targeting migrants, language games used by competing forces are playing an important role in the discourse in order to set up power structures.

Establishing a national standard: the role of the UK’s Minimum Income Standard in policy and practice

2020 ◽  
pp. 307-318
Author(s):  
Donald Hirsch
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Strong Influence ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
National Standard ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Uk

This chapter promotes the UK Minimum Income Standards (MIS) as a benchmark in social policy and practice. It explains how the MIS research continues to have a strong influence over social policy debates in Britain and exposes the inadequacy of the national minimum wage that helped fuel the campaign for a “living wage.” It also features MIS as a key element in the new Scottish measure of fuel poverty. The chapter observes how MIS has not been taken up by governments as a standard for setting or targeting minimum incomes in terms of social protection. It observes that it will require a major political commitment to redistribution if the British government were to adopt MIS.

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

The Establishment of Social Entrepreneurship Movements as A Response to The Transformation of Governments' Social Policies (The Case of Four EAEU Countries)

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-25
Author(s):  
Gulnara Dzhunushalieva
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Problem Solution ◽  
Social Reformer ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Social Activists

Objective - This article summarizes research into the social entrepreneurship movement based on databases which include respondents from the following countries: the Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Kazakhstan and Russian Federation. This article tries to relate the efficiency of social policy to social issues. Methodology/Technique - We selected 180 acting social enterprises and 36 from 4 post-soviet countries and conducted interviews and observations to create a database. Based on defined key criteria, different types of social actors were classified and grouped. Findings - The findings indicate that state funding for social services and social protection has fallen dramatically due to a sharp decline in GDP and in the residual shares of GDP allocated for social policy. Our analysis indicates that countries which experienced a transformation of government social policy have a greater variety of social actors. Through the database, we were able to define and classify 8 typical groups of social actors. Two of them - social activists and social reformers - can help a nation to create a new stable system for target social groups. Novelty - Originality of the findings of this article. Type of Paper: Empirical Keywords: Social entrepreneurship; social reformer; social activists, social policy; problem solution; social groups; social issues

Decent Incomes for All

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

This book aims to shed new light on recent poverty trends in the European Union, responses by European welfare states, and how progress can be made to realize a decent income for all. The text analyzes the effect of social and fiscal policies before, during, and after the recent economic crisis and studies the impact of alternative policy packages on poverty and inequality. Furthermore, the discussion elaborates on how social investment and local initiatives of social innovation can contribute to tackling poverty. There are reasons for both optimism and pessimism. The book argues that there are indeed structural constraints on the increase of the social floor and difficult trade-offs involved in reconciling work and poverty reduction. Differences across countries are, however, very large. This suggests that there is ample room for maneuver for policy makers. There is also no evidence of a universal deterioration of social protection. Nonetheless, we observe a persistent and almost general inadequacy of minimum income protection for jobless households, pointing to structural challenges for realizing a decent minimum income for all. To overcome these challenges, unavoidably, efforts to raise the wage and the social floor should be increased significantly almost everywhere. The book highlights that to do so, country-specific policy mixes should be designed.

scholarly journals State Social Policy: Essence, Models, Directions

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (47) ◽  
pp. 178-184
Author(s):  
K. V. Drymalovska ◽  
◽  
R. D. Bala ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Financial Education ◽  
Youth Policy ◽  
Foreign Experience ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Social ◽  
Employment Education

The article aims at analyzing domestic and foreign experience in social policy provision (the essence of the concept, its basic models and directions), as it acts as a kind of lever to determine the principles, priorities, directions of the social sphere development. The article suggests a new definition of the "social policy" concept through analyzing the content of the category in question. The public administration approach to understanding the "social policy" concept is also outlined. The article identifies the priority directions of transformations in the EU member states’ social policy, which are taking place due to globalization challenges. Based on these areas, the main principles of European social policy are identified, namely: inclusiveness, gender equality, digitalization, support for youth policy development (employment, education), and financial education of citizens. Social policy in such countries as Canada, Germany, China, and Australia is analyzed, and peculiarities of its changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic are considered in the following areas: support for employment, social protection and the unemployed; social support for certain social groups; support for business development. The main means helping to implement the outlined areas are identified, namely: creation of funds to support certain social groups; formation of favorable conditions for lending to small, medium and large businesses; financing of various social programs (providing employment, training, and wage subsidies). The main directions of domestic social policy in the COVID-19 pandemic are also given. Relevant conclusions on domestic and foreign experience in the implementation of social policy are formed. Further research can be related to the issues of creating a mechanism for an effective social policy implementation.

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.

Formulation of rights and European legal discourse: any theory behind it?

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Ioriatti Ferrari
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Actual Structure ◽  
Multilingual Communication ◽  
Consumer Rights ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
Council Regulation ◽  
The Right ◽  
Right Of Withdrawal ◽  
The Eu

AbstractEver since the very beginning of the European Economic Community, the EU has regulated European linguistic diversity through a policy of multilingualism (Art. 217 of the E.C. Treaty and Council Regulation No 1 April 15, 1958). Within this policy, the legislator introduced the right of EU citizens to communicate with the EU institutions in each one of the official languages. The possibility of multilingual communication with the EU institutions is not only a practical solution, but a real “core” right, recognized even in the Lisbon Treaty. In this framework, it is worth providing practical solutions as well as considering whether or not, the European Union is also favoring the enactment of rights at the European level, by formulating, enforcing and even communicating the same rule to all EU citizens, with the aid of a multilingual drafting. The EU legal terminology providing rights comes into being through specific mechanisms of lexical creation, which chiefly consist of coining semantic neologisms. Moreover, all legal texts must be written in accordance with EU drafting guidelines, prescribing that “rules have to be drafted bearing in mind their translation in all the official languages”. The consequence of these drafting techniques is that multilingualism influences not only the translation, but the actual structure and content of the rule: very often the result of this praxis is a pragmatic, detailed, concrete regulation of legal instruments, rather than a system of rights. A clear example is given by the directives on consumer protection – nowadays “Directive on Consumer Rights” – and particularly the well known “right of withdrawal”; a consumer opportunity to withdraw from a contract within seven (now fourteen) days is undeniably a proper “right”. However, the regulation provided in the directives is more focused on the procedure of withdrawal (the instrument) than on the effect of the withdrawal from the contract (the right). In general, the multilingual drafting of EU norms – and consequently of EU

La conexión entre política de cohesión y gobernanza económica en la UE: Eficiencia del nuevo marco para abordar las consecuencias de la crisis

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-62
Author(s):  
Laura Gómez Urquijo
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Economic Governance ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Investment Funds ◽  
Current Economic Crisis ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
New Economic Governance ◽  
Social Protection Systems ◽  
New Instruments

The objective of this article is to contribute to the discussion on the validity of new instruments to enhance cohesion in the European Union (EU). First, we question to which extent cohesion policy is submitted to the new economic governance. Second, we discuss this subordination affects the fulfillment of cohesion aims. This question is especially relevant due to the increase of inequalities in the current economic crisis and the great diversity among State Members (including social protection systems and expenses). Thus, our starting point is the new economic governance framework and its impact on the fulfillment of cohesion objectives. Statistical data are considered with this aim. Next, we will assess the role of European Structural and Investment Funds to eventually compensate public expense cuts, as well as its subordination to the macroeconomic government. This aspect will be contrasted through the study of Country Specific Recommendations given by the European Semester. Spanish El objetivo de este artículo es contribuir a la discusión sobre la validez de los nuevos instrumentos para fomentar la cohesión en la Unión Europea. Nos preguntamos en qué modo queda sometida la política de cohesión a la nueva gobernanza económica y cómo afecta a la efectividad para cubrir susfines. Esta cuestión es particularmente relevante ante el incremento de las desigualdades suscitado en la crisis económica actual. Por ello, nuestro punto de partida es el nuevo marco de gobernanza económica y su impacto en el cumplimiento de los objetivos de cohesión, considerando para ello datos estadísticos. A continuación, valoraremos, el papel de los Fondos Estructurales y de Inversión Europeos como posibles compensadores de la reducción del gasto público así como su subordinación al gobierno macroeconómico. Esta cuestión será contrastada también a través del examen de las Recomendaciones Específicas por país dadas por el Semestre Europeo. French Le but de cet article est de contribuer à la discussion sur la validité de nouveaux instruments pour promouvoir la cohésion dans l'UE. Nous avons considéré, d'une part, en quoi la politique de cohésion est soumise à la nouvelle gouvernance économique et, d'autre part, la façon dont elle utilise l'efficacité pour répondre à ses fins.Cette question est particulièrement pertinente étant donnée l'augmentation de l'inégalité soulevée par la crise économique actuelle, dans un contexte de grande diversité d'États membres, notamment en ce qui concerne les systèmes de protection sociale et les dépenses publiques. Par conséquent, notre point de départ s'inscrit dans le nouveau cadre de gouvernance économique et son impact sur la mise en œuvre des objectifs de cohésion, à partir de la prise en compte de données statistiques. Pour ce faire, nous évaluons le rôle des Fonds Structurels Européens, leur capacité de compenser la réduction des dépenses publiques et leur subordination au gouvernement macroéconomique. Ce e question sera également abordée par l'examen des recommandations spécifiques par pays fournies par le Semestre Européen.

STAGES IN SOCIAL POLICY DEVELOPMENT

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-272
Author(s):  
Venelin Terziev ◽  
Preslava Dimitrova
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
National Society ◽  
Complex Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The social policy of a country is a set of specific activities aimed at regulating the social relations between different in their social status subjects. This approach to clarifying social policy is also called functional and essentially addresses social policy as an activity to regulate the relationship of equality or inequality in society. It provides an opportunity to look for inequalities in the economic positions of individuals in relation to ownership, labor and working conditions, distribution of income and consumption, social security and health, to look for the sources of these inequalities and their social justification or undue application.The modern state takes on social functions that seek to regulate imbalances, to protect weak social positions and prevent the disintegration of the social system. It regulates the processes in society by harmonizing interests and opposing marginalization. Every modern country develops social activities that reflect the specifics of a particular society, correspond to its economic, political and cultural status. They are the result of political decisions aimed at directing and regulating the process of adaptation of the national society to the transformations of the market environment. Social policy is at the heart of the development and governance of each country. Despite the fact that too many factors and problems affect it, it largely determines the physical and mental state of the population as well as the relationships and interrelationships between people. On the other hand, social policy allows for a more global study and solving of vital social problems of civil society. On the basis of the programs and actions of political parties and state bodies, the guidelines for the development of society are outlined. Social policy should be seen as an activity to regulate the relationship of equality or inequality between different individuals and social groups in society. Its importance is determined by the possibility of establishing on the basis of the complex approach: the economic positions of the different social groups and individuals, by determining the differences between them in terms of income, consumption, working conditions, health, etc .; to explain the causes of inequality; to look for concrete and specific measures to overcome the emerging social disparities.

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