scholarly journals Przeciwdziałanie ubóstwu dzieci i młodzieży w Unii Europejskiej. Między planowaniem a działaniem

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 96-104
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Białobrzeska
Keyword(s):  
Child Poverty ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
The Social ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu

The aim of the article is to examine whether the member states of the European Union guarantee children in poverty the right to specific means of equal opportunities as guaranteed by the European pillar of social rights. A strategy for counteracting poverty based on the A. Giddens’s concept of the ‘social investment state’ was created in the EU. According to this concept, the state should support most of all these social groups which guarantee the highest social advantages. Following this idea, the union strategy for fighting poverty emphasizes the necessity of investing in children from early years of their lives. According to the social investment paradigm adopted by the European Commission, a crucial role in strategies for counteracting child poverty plays early childhood education and care.

Social Investment as a Policy Platform

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Vandenbroucke
Keyword(s):  
Social World ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Education Spending ◽  
Overlapping Consensus ◽  
Member States ◽  
Policy Perspective ◽  
The Social ◽  
Broad Consensus ◽  
The Eu

This contribution argues for a truly reciprocal social investment pact for Europe: member states should be committed to policies that respond to the need for social investment; simultaneously, member states’ efforts in this direction—notably efforts by those in a difficult budgetary context—should be supported in a tangible way. Social investment is a policy perspective that should be based on a broad consensus between people who may entertain certain disagreements regarding the level of their empirical and/or normative understanding of the social world. For that reason, the expression of an ‘overlapping consensus’ is used for delineating social investment advocacy. Data on education spending show that we are far removed from a social investment perspective at the European Union (EU) level. This underscores the fact that social investment advocates need to clearly consider the role the EU has to play in social investment progress.

scholarly journals Collective Labor Rights and the European Social Model

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diamond Ashiagbor
Keyword(s):  
Market Integration ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Social Model ◽  
Mobile Capital ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu

This article explores the tension between competing discourses within the European Union, as this regional trading bloc seeks to capture further gains from market integration, whilst simultaneously attempting to soften the social impact of regional competition within its borders. This article analyzes the difficulty of maintaining the European social model, or a revised version of it, in the context of increased market integration. Through a close reading of two cases decided by the European Court of Justice in 2007, the article interrogates the extent to which discourses on social rights at the EU level can be made sufficiently robust to ensure the application of international or national labor standards as a buttress against increasingly mobile capital, in order to prevent “social dumping." It concludes, however, that the terms on which the foundational texts of the EU integration project operate—elevating “market" rights to equal, fundamental, status with social and labor rights—means that the exercise of social rights such as the right to strike is ultimately contingent on their compatibility with market integration.

scholarly journals FROM THE WELFARE STATE TO THE SOCIAL INVESTMENT STATE

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-71
Author(s):  
Maurizio Ferrera
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Child Policy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
British Experience ◽  
The Welfare State

This paper discusses the basic rationale which has inspired the intellectual and policy reorientation towards “social investment”, with particular attention to child policy. The firstsection outlines the main features of the social investment approach, contrasting it with the more traditional “Fordist” approach. The second and third sections explain why and how early childhood education and care canmake a difference in termsofbothefficiencyandequity.Thefourthsectionbrieflysummarizes the British experience under New Labour, while the fifth section discusses issues of quality and accessibility. The conclusion wraps up, underlining the need to step up the shift to- wards social investment, overcoming the political obstaclesto reform.

‘Investing’ in early childhood education and care in Aotearoa New Zealand: Noddings’ ethics of care and the politics of care within the Social Investment approach to governance

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 335-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Delaune
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Ethics Of Care ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
The Social ◽  
Education And Care

This article draws from Nel Noddings’ ethics of care as a basis for analysing the political effects of the burgeoning Social Investment approach to governance in Aotearoa New Zealand. To assess the effects of the Social Investment paradigm of governance in relation to early childhood care and education, this article commences with an historical analysis of the relationships between the concepts of ‘care’ and ‘education’ through the history of Aotearoa New Zealand in relation to early childhood education and care. Following this, the burgeoning Social Investment paradigm will be charted. Then, the major principles of Noddings’ ethics of care are outlined and utilised to scrutinise current and potential effects the Social Investment paradigm will have on early childhood education and care and the discourses of ‘care’ and ‘education’. Foucauldian theories augment Noddings’ theories to highlight the bio-politics of care.

scholarly journals The Paradox between the European Pillar of Social Rights and EU Economic Governance: Spanish Reforms to Wage-Setting Institutions and the Working Poor

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-50
Author(s):  
Sergio Canalda Criado
Keyword(s):  
Working Poor ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Economic Governance ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Wage Setting ◽  
Fair Wages ◽  
The Right ◽  
Eu Economic Governance ◽  
Country Specific ◽  
The Eu

The European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) was announced as a new platform for advancing social policy in the European Union. Among the principles and rights enshrined in the EPSR, the Commission has included the right of workers to be paid fair wages. However, in the context of EU Economic Governance, the EU country-specific recommendations steer national wage-setting institutions in the opposite direction. The outcomes sought by EU Economic Governance and the EPSR thus produce a paradox. This paper presents the Spanish case as an example of this paradox. More specifically, it assesses the reforms the Spanish Government made to minimum wage rules and the collective bargaining system during the financial crisis. In the end, all those reforms have led to wage stagnation and devaluation, causing an increasing number of working poor. El Pilar Europeo de Derechos Sociales (EPSR) fue presentado como una nueva etapa en la dimensión social de la Unión Europea. Entre los principios y derechos consagrados en la EPSR, la Comisión incluyó el derecho de los trabajadores a un salario justo. Sin embargo, en el contexto de la gobernanza económica de la UE, las Recomendaciones a los países de la UE llevan a las instituciones nacionales de fijación de salarios en la dirección contraria. Por lo tanto, los resultados buscados por la nueva gobernanza de la Unión Europea y el EPSR producen una paradoja. Este artículo toma el caso español como ejemplo de dicha paradoja. Más concretamente, evalúa las reformas adoptadas por el Gobierno español durante la crisis con respecto al salario mínimo y al sistema de negociación colectiva, las cuales han llevado a una moderación o una devaluación de los salarios, favoreciendo el aumento de la pobreza laboral.

scholarly journals What characteristics of funding, provision and regulation are associated with effective social investment in ECEC in England, France and Germany?

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 681-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNE WEST ◽  
AGNES BLOME ◽  
JANE LEWIS
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
The Social ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Financial Expenditure ◽  
Staff Qualification

AbstractEarly childhood education and care (ECEC) is seen as a crucial element of the social investment state. Whilst the extent of social investment in ECEC depends on financial expenditure, its effectiveness depends on certain conditions being met: namely, affordable, high quality provision being available. We explore policy development and the role played by government in the funding, provision and regulation of ECEC in England, France and Germany and then compare availability, affordability and quality. We argue that for children aged three and over, social investment can be deemed to be broadly effective in France and Germany, but in England quality is compromised by low staff qualification levels in private childcare centres. For children under three, effective social investment is elusive in all countries, although as a result of different conditions not being met. Our findings lead us to question the limitations of the concept of social investment in ECEC, particularly in marketised contexts.

scholarly journals The rise and change of the competence strategy: Reflections on twenty-five years of skills policies in the EU

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Telling ◽  
Martino Serapioni
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Background ◽  
To Come ◽  
Union Education ◽  
The Eu

The principal aim of this article is to provide a historical overview of 25 years of competence policy in the European Union, highlighting connections between past and current initiatives and outlining possible scenarios for the decade to come. The article presents the social investment turn in social policy as the critical political background against which the emergence of a competence strategy in European Union education policy should be analysed and understood. The competence strategy, it is argued, finds its roots in a renewed attention at the European Union level for harmonising educational outputs and labour market demands. While trying to produce a schematic history of the emergence and change of the competence strategy, the article does not seek to offer strict definitions of competence itself; instead, it conveys the nebulous and context-dependent nature of the concept.

scholarly journals Migrants’ Access to Social Protection in Croatia

2020 ◽  
pp. 81-94
Author(s):  
Helga Špadina
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Unemployment Benefits ◽  
Pension Insurance ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
The Social ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Family Benefits ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu

Abstract This chapter focuses on migrants’ access to social protection in Croatia by providing an in-depth analysis of social entitlements in the area of family benefits, pension insurance, unemployment benefits, health care and social welfare benefits. By highlighting the partial harmonization of the national social legislation to the EU acquis, the chapter puts forward the still limited scope of social rights of EU nationals, even several years after Croatia’s accession to the EU. Non-EU nationals have even more limited access to social rights, and they do not enjoy the full scope of family benefits, the right to social housing or other specific social rights, including unemployment benefits and contributory pensions. The chapter also sheds light to on-going discussions on reform of the social system in Croatia, with possible changes of the entitlement to the national pension and family benefits reform.

scholarly journals Protection of Social Rights as a Permament Challenge for the European Union

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-143
Author(s):  
Joanna Ryszka
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Significant Development ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Eu Integration ◽  
The Social ◽  
Charter Of Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Eu

Social rights protection in the European Union has undergone significant development. Currently their protection is regulated by relevant treaty provisions and the Charter of Fundamental Rights (Charter), both of a primary law nature, as well as by the non-binding European Pillar of Social Rights (Pillar). The aim of the paper is the assessment of the social rights protection in the EU, and whether all social rights provided in the CFR have their counterparts in the EPSR, hence whether and in what way the EPSR assists the actual exercise of social rights provided by the CFR. Comparing the content of the above-mentioned legal instruments makes it possible to answer the question whether all social rights provided in the Charter have their counterparts in the Pillar. This can help determine whether the latter affects the implementation of the former. If the answer is in the affirmative, it can further allow for determining in what way the principles of the Pillar assist in the actual exercise of social rights provided by the Charter. This is very important taking into account the need for an ongoing response to unforeseen threats, like for example COVID-19. The social aspects of EU integration thus are and will remain a subject of interest in the nearest future.

Social Investment and Childcare Expansion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita León
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Perfect Match ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care

The chapter first examines at a conceptual level the links between theories of social investment and childcare expansion. Although ‘the perfect match’ between the two is often taken for granted in the specialized literature as well as in policy papers, it is here argued that a more nuance approach that ‘unpacks’ this relationship is needed. The chapter will then look for elements of variation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) expansion. Despite an increase in spending over the last two decades in many European and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, wide variation still exists in the way in which ECEC develops. A trade-off is often observed between coverage and quality of provision. A crucial dividing line that determines, to a large extent, the quality of provision in ECEC is the increasing differentiation between preschool education for children aged 3 and above and childcare for younger children.

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