This volume represents the outcome of two years of intensive debate about the future of Europe. It aims to provide the European Union with a vision: one that will unite all of its citizens and help to create the democratic legitimacy that the EU currently lacks. It builds on the first book on social quality, The Social Quality of Europe, which introduced the concept and which has been enthusiastically received by both the scientific and policy communities. The book develops three crucial elements of social quality: the theoretical validity of the concept, its practical application, and its identity or `genetic code'. It establishes an independent identity for social quality, with a unique focus on the quality of the social, which enables it to act as the rationale for economic, social, and cultural policies and, therefore, an escape route from the dominance of narrow economic thinking in policy making.

This collection sets out the latest research on the concept of 'social quality', developing its theoretical foundations and applying it to pressing policy issues such as the future of the European Union and sustainable global development.

In recent years, major social forces such as: ageing populations, social trends, migration patterns, and the globalization of economies, have reshaped social welfare policies and practices across the globe. Multinational corporations, NGOs, and other international organizations have begun to influence social policy at a national and local level. Among the many ramifications of these changes is that globalizing influences may hinder the ability of individual nation-states to effect policies that are beneficial to them on a local level. With contributions from thirteen countries worldwide, this collected work represents the first major comparative analysis on the effect of globalization on the international welfare state. The Welfare State in Post-Industrial Society is divided into two major sections: the first draws from a number of leading social welfare researchers from diverse countries who point to the nation-state as case studies; highlighting how it goes about establishing and revising social welfare provisions. The second portion of the volume then moves to a more global perspective in its analysis and questioning of the impact of globalization on citizenship, ageing and marketization. The Welfare State in Post-Industrial Society seeks to encourage debate about the implications of the most pressing social welfare issues in nation-states, and integrate analyses of policy and practice in particular countries struggling to provide social welfare support for their needy populations.

Strangely, citizenship has usually been considered as a matter of interest when it is questioned or even withheld. The other way round, usually citizenship is taken for granted 'as it is', not being defined as such. In consequence we find only a negative definition rather than a clear way of spelling out the meaning. As globalisation spreads and deepens, the question of citizenship becomes crucial for society. It is already possible to see changes in voting patterns in such a country as France due to its immigration policies. This has long been the case in America as well, and is being felt there yet again by the effects of the citizenships of its newest immigrants. The contributions in this volumes are dealing with different aspects of defining citizenship -- though not necessarily conceptualising it as such, i.e. under this term. These are burning questions which this book explores in this explosive national and international issue. Contents: Introduction; Citizenship Revisited: Threats and Opportunities of Shifting Boundaries; Globalisation as Seen from the Local Level; Self-Improved Citizens: Citizenship, Social Inclusion and the Self in the Politics of Welfare; Citizen Partici

This ground-breaking book presents incisive studies by sixteen leading academics, labour policymakers, employment services professionals, and employment researchers from Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Belgium, and Poland. The articles provide an excellent overview of employment services experience throughout the EU, and demonstrate that careful application of active labour market measures can produce positive results in combating long-term unemployment. Notable for its emphasis on the proven power of cooperation among various stakeholders in reducing unemployment, New European Approaches to Long-Term Unemployment will be a welcome resource for employment services both public and private, other public labour and employment organisations, and employers, as well as to academics, lawyers, and other interested professionals. -- Provided by publisher.

This book offers new insights into the relationship between wellbeing and sustainable development through a focus on local indicators

This contributed volume provides an in-depth overview of current social and socio-political transformations in Europe and their effects on social work and its educational structures. It elucidates these transformations and structures at the individual level of ten different countries and goes on to elaborate a European perspective in this field. Readers gain insight into the variety in social work and its educational structures in Europe and, at the same time, readers receive starting points for the exchange of ideas, collaboration and further development in the individual countries and in Europe. The introduction outlines the current developments and challenges facing social work education in Europe, contextualizing the topics to be covered in the volume. Each chapter offers an individual country profile of social work, including an analysis of typical examples of different traditions of educational models for social work that, collectively, provide insight into an overall "European model of education for social work". The countries selected represent all parts of Europe: Finland Latvia Germany United Kingdom The Netherlands France Italy Croatia Romania Cyprus European Social Work Education: Traditions and Transformations is an essential resource – an up‐to‐date and differentiated inventory of social work education in Europe from a horizontal and vertical perspective – which describes fields of work and approaches that prepare students to practice social work, examines the degree of academization of the discipline and investigates its structures and conditions. Social workers and social work educators, researchers and practitioners will find this an engaging and useful text.

Modern Europe is a patchwork quilt in which a diverse array of national cultures have been pieced into one community. In Europe: A Heritage, a Challenge, a Promise, Jan Berting reckons with a continent at a turning point in its history, arguing that Europe must balance its urge to modernize with a respect for its shared legacy. As Europe struggles with the tension between its past and its future, Berting pinpoints challenges to modernization and proposes intriguing solutions. He addresses topics as varied as the rise of Islam, political liberalism, and individual freedoms in this comprehensive volume sure to interest all those invested in the future of Europe.

Two legitimate statements in search of legal doctrine: ?An employee must have a reasonable expectation of privacy.? ?The efficient operation of the company must be safeguarded.? As a lawyer considers each of these assertions, a significant region of incompatibility emerges. In the context of the use of information technology systems in the workplace, a collision of rights is exposed that has engendered a virtual battleground in the theory and practice of labour law. This remarkable and timely book draws together all the strands of law in this controversial area, both de facto and de jure. Its comprehensive coverage includes such eminently useful materials as the following: thirty actual company policies regarding on-line communications, from a wide variety of business sectors, with detailed analysis; texts of four company codes of practice; actual views of trade unions and employers? organizations; analysis of relevant existing laws on access, monitoring, liability, sanctions, and the rights of employee representatives; two proposed model codes of practice, one for the individual user and one for employee representatives; and, appendices including Belgium?s National Collective Agreement No. 81 and the regulatory bill and advisory opinions that led up to it. The authors? focus on practice is advantageous, as it brings the central issues and conflicts into high relief. The close analysis and investigation of how employers, trade unions, and legislative and advisory bodies are dealing with the essential matters?which include communications facilities at work, employer?s prerogative, the company?s rights of ownership and disposal, and the fundamental privacy rules of legitimate purpose, proportionality, and transparency?provide very valuable guidance to parties in any country concerned with developing a viable set of legal principles and rules for this challenging and unsettled area of labour law.

East-Central Europe is about to bring its welfare reforms to the European Union. Nevertheless, in the course of the Accession, one could hardly fix the European standards of social policy or examine to what degree the newcomers may have approached them. Evidently, there has always been a variety of welfare regimes in the EU. Moreover, today's experts in post-communist countries do not find stable policies and institutional arrangements in the West but rather another reform process, the "domestication" of the classical welfare states. True, the general trends are not dissimilar: partial retrenchment, decentralization, marketisation and privatisation of public welfare services, as well as an upsurge of the voluntary sector, are the main characteristic features of regulating welfare on both sides of the former Iron Curtain. These issues are addressed by the contributors of this volume, leading representatives of their professions, in an unprecedented way. In avoiding the convenient cliche