[email protected]forskning.mah.se/en/id/hsjoch Swedish Social Policy within a European phrame What? Why? How? PhD Assistant Prof in Soc work Jonas Christensen Malmö University Faculty of Health and Society Dept. of Social work University of Genua 26th of March 2013 Very much welcome to
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[email protected] forskning.mah.se/en/id/hsjoch Swedish Social Policy within a European phrame What? Why? How? PhD Assistant Prof in Soc work Jonas.
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The Öresund region is comprised of Skåne and Själland, 3.7 million inhabitants, 1.2 million on the Swedish side and 2.5 million on the Danish side The Öresund Region currently accounts for 26 percent of the GDP (gross domestic products) of Sweden and Denmark.20 000 persons commute every day between the two countries
Malmö?
• Malmö is the region's growth centre• 300,000 inhabitants• Increased population for the twenty-sixth consecutive year• 40% of the city's inhabitants were born abroad• Malmö residents from 175 different countries• Young population: 48% are younger than 35
Social policy primarily refers to guidelines, principles, legislation and activities that affect the living conditions conducive to human welfare. Thus, social policy is that part of public policy that has to do with social issues….
…and Social Policy should be seen as a key part of how welfare is provided which means that social policy is also welfare policy…
….and Social Policy can be studied into a varirity of parts of a society:
• Welfare organization and structure• Social exklusion in general (Social marginalization)• Education• Health policy• Housing, living and homelessnes• Social assistance• Handicap policy• Minority issues and Integration policy• Social expenditure• Employment – Unemployement• Poverty in general (Child poverty)• Demography and Social development• Income distribution and redistribution• Social expenditure• Social insurance • Ageing • Drug policy • Family policy
• Most studies of Social Policies in Europe focus either explicitly or implicitly on the Member States of the EU (Syskes 1998)
• But it is clear that Europe and the European Union (EU) are not co-terminus
• Even in the case of Western Europe, nations such as Norway and Switzerland have chosen to remain outside the EU.
• More fundamentally, the ongoing accession of a large number of Central and Eastern European countries has emphasised the shifting nature of the EU´s boundaries.
Two contrasting models for social planning and economic planning can be seen…:
• The low wage/low welfare model• Growth through the reduction of welfare commitments
• Acceptance of low wages and insecure work to the price of relatively high flexibility and employment
• Reduction of collective welfare costs through low taxation and social insurance payments
• Welfare support towards the poor and welfare support is reduced to a residual role
• Protection and participation provided mainly by the the labour market
• The USA has become the paradigm example for this model even though some European countries is moving steadily towards this direction, the UK for example?
• The high wage/high welfare model• Growth through the maintenace of public support and the promotion of social
integration and solidarity
• Requirement of political commitment to developing a high skill/high reward labour market through generous social insurance systems
• Extensive collective provision for education, training and health
• Social inequalities are reduced, in parts through transferation systems and relatively high level of taxation (not necessarily high income taxes but a high overall tax-pressure through other taxes)
• Universality as a basic principle of services
• In general a political consensus on the basic principles, here Sweden and the Scandinavian and Nordic countries (and to a high extent Germany) can be seen as examples
• An interesting example where generous social systems, when getting unemployed is combined with a relatively high degree
of dynamic on the labour market is Denmark, through its