scholarly journals Religious Diversity and the Challenge of Social Inclusion

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Bouma
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Thinking ◽  
Diverse Society ◽  
Society Today ◽  
Cross National

As societies have become religiously diverse in ways and extents not familiar in the recent histories of most, the issues of how to include this diversity and how to manage it, that is, questions about how to be a religiously diverse society have come to the fore. As a result religion has become part of the social policy conversation in new ways. It has also occasioned new thinking about religions, their forms and the complexity of ways they are negotiated by adherents and the ways they are related to society, the state and each other. This issue of <em>Social Inclusion</em> explores these issues of social inclusion in both particular settings and in cross-national comparative studies by presenting research and critical thought on this critical issue facing every society today.

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 re-signification of state-funded community development in Ireland: A problem of austerity and neoliberal government

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosie R. Meade
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
Development Programme ◽  
The Social

This article analyses the changing rationalities and techniques through which the Irish state seeks to govern community development; specifically, how the displacement of its flagship Community Development Programme by the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme has been justified and operationalised. Adopting a governmentality perspective, it explains how community development came to be constructed as an anti-poverty strategy and why it should also be understood as a ‘technology of government’. This article argues that the changing governmentalities shaping Irish community development are reflected in a re-problematisation and re-signification of community development’s purposes, rationalities and sources of legitimacy. Under the cover of austerity’s manufactured public spending crisis and new forms of expertise, preoccupations with effectiveness, efficiency and international best practice have intensified, thus demonstrating ongoing incursions by neoliberal ideas and practices in Irish Social Policy.

scholarly journals Solidarity Economy Reintegration Entities in Warmia and Mazury

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-86
Author(s):  
Majka Łojko
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Solidarity Economy ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Vocational Reintegration

The aim of the paper is to present solidarity economy reintegration entities and to analyse the actions they undertake for labour market reintegration and social inclusion of people at risk of social exclusion and for social and vocational rehabilitation of the disabled in the Warmia and Mazury region. The paper provides a review of the literature on the subject, based on an analysis of data from public statistics published by Statistics Poland, current studies of the Regional Centre of Social Policy in Olsztyn and scientific studies dedicated to the field of the social and solidarity economy. The analysis has revealed that all solidarity economy entities operating in the region are focused on taking comprehensive measures aimed at counteracting social exclusion and promoting social and vocational reintegration of people who, for various reasons, are not able to perform their social and professional roles independently and effectively.

Whither EU Social Policy? An Account and Assessment of Developments in the Lisbon Social Inclusion Process

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARY DALY
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Process ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Lisbon Strategy ◽  
Policy Model ◽  
Inclusion Process ◽  
Open Method Of Coordination ◽  
The Social ◽  
Death Knell

The study of EU social policy highlights a number of issues especially well, among them the unfolding institutionalisation of a social field in EU politics and policy, and the changing nature of economic and social governance in Europe. This article examines recent EU social policy, following the course of the Lisbon strategy since it got underway in 2000. Focusing on the social inclusion process, the aim is to identify development over time, to review progress critically and to offer some explanation for events. Analysis is centred on an interrogation of the social policy model and the cognitive aspects of the process, especially as they are to be seen in the production of national policy plans and the responses to these on the part of different EU actors. A conclusion drawn is that, while social exclusion has provided an innovative focus within an EU context, the process as a whole is timid and key elements are weak. This is a spur to further analysis and so the article goes on to identify limitations in terms of design, rationale, and the place of the social inclusion Open Method of Coordination (OMC) the revised Lisbon Strategy. In effect, the conditions necessary to realise the new method and social vision are not in place. A key conclusion is that with survival under threat, the need to continually reinvent itself may actually be the death knell of the social process.

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.

Assumptive Worlds and Images of Agency: Academic Social Policy in the Twenty-first Century?

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Taylor-Gooby
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
First Century ◽  
Structural Basis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Classical Economics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Interests ◽  
Diverse Society

As many commentators have pointed out, the pressures facing modern welfare states are formidable. One response by government is to place greater emphasis on a policy-making paradigm that rests on an individual rational actor account of agency. This finds its intellectual home in the leading tradition of neo-classical economics, its ideological home in a politics of active citizenry and equality of opportunity and its institutional home in the mechanisms by which the Treasury currently directs social policy.The resulting policies have strengths in delivering productivity improvements and responsiveness to consumer demand, but weaknesses in accommodating the value positions of an increasingly diverse society, in sustaining the social cohesion necessary to the continuance of state welfare and in confronting the structural basis of some social interests. These issues have traditionally been recognised in the sociology of values, the psychology of trust and the political science of power.One strength of academic social policy is that it is a field of study in which a number of disciplines are deployed. The ascendancy of one paradigm may obscure the contribution of others. It is hard for social policy academics to gain recognition when they speak a different language from that of policy making at the highest level.

The role of demographic and socio-cultural factors in Australia’s successful multicultural society: How Australia is not Europe

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 759-771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary D Bouma
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Religious Conflict ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Multicultural Society ◽  
European Policies ◽  
Classical Sociology ◽  
Cross National

Religious diversity and social cohesion have long been seen to be at odds with each other. Classical sociology, grounded in the Westphalian solution to religious conflict in Europe presumed that a single religion was necessary for social cohesion. The issue of religious diversity and social cohesion has come to the fore as once religiously monochrome societies have become diverse through migration and, to a lesser degree, conversion. While European nations question the possibility of multicultural and multi-faith societies living in productive harmony, Australia offers an example of a successful multicultural and multi-faith society. Australia has produced a multicultural society through a policy of social inclusion and mutual respect, in contrast to European policies which produce separate community development. This cross-national comparative study reveals demographic and socio-cultural differences that are likely to explain some of the comparative success of Australia in producing social inclusion and avoiding the ‘othering’ of religious minorities, especially of Muslims. Australia has a particular demographic that features multiple substantial minority religious communities living in ways that promote daily encounters among people of different backgrounds.

scholarly journals THE FUNCTION OF SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIAL INCLUSION IN EXPLANING THE GENERAL ECONOMIC EQUILIBRIUM

2020 ◽  
pp. 49-55
Author(s):  
I. Radionova
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Function ◽  
Economic Science ◽  
The Social ◽  
Monetary Authorities ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Construction Model ◽  
General Economic Equilibrium

The article substantiates the function of social policy as such, which reflects the actual social value – social inclusion. Thus, it draws attention to the differences between this approach and other approaches to the social function that have already been implemented in economic science. The content of social inclusion is considered from the perspective of its background (set of economic, technological, humanitarian, managerial reasons) and several main forms of manifestation. Participation of citizens of the country in the distribution and redistribution of national incomes, in labor / business activity, in public management of communities is considered as such forms of manifestation. The article presents the social function equation (DI) as a nonlinear relationship between output and income differentiation. The latter (income differentiation) has been interpreted as partially able to detect the level of inclusion. It has verified the assumptions about the possibility of presenting a social function through social inclusion, according to panel data of statistics of EU countries for the period 2014 – 2018. Herewith, the data on GDP per capita and Gini coefficient, Income share ratio have become the object of analysis. The social function has been implemented into the theoretical construction – model IS-LM-DI. The latter forms the theoretical basis for explaining the interaction of the three policies – financial, monetary and social – for the sake of moving toward a general equilibrium. A graphical interpretation of the model IS-LM-DI has been provided. The considered model generalizes two possible variants of combining stimulating actions of the financial and monetary authorities of the country with the actions of social regulators, which are aimed at overcoming exclusion, alienating, and respectively, at achieving social inclusion.

scholarly journals Essential Notions Concerning the Integration of Refugees

2021 ◽  
pp. 121-141
Author(s):  
Bertalan Decmann
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Integration Policy ◽  
Coherent Integration ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Eu

The latest wave of refugees, which peaked in 2015, raises the question of what we mean by integration, not only in terms of the rules adopted in the EU, but also in terms of the social inclusion of individual refugees and their families. This is because the concepts in the literature, in EU documents on asylum, and in individual sectoral policies (e.g. social, employment, housing, health and public education) are not necessarily harmonized. Therefore, the aim of the study is not only to review integration outcomes, but also to distinguish concepts related to migration, asylum, and refugee discourse, such as exclusion, disintegration, acculturation, and assimilation. Only clarification will bring us closer to selecting the most important social policy and asylum measures. This clarification is also urgent because a coherent integration policy must comply with both cultural diversity and non-discrimination requirements in the EU.

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