This publication examines the impact of socio-economic policies on social exclusion of vulnerable groups in central and eastern Europe and identifies types, degrees and common characteristics of social deprivation. It also focuses on developing and evaluating regional statistical indicators of social deprivation and investigates the emergence of new forms of social exclusion. It includes case studies from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Latvia, Hungary and the Russian Federation.

This report studies poverty and social exclusion in central and eastern Europe. The first part of the report describes the impact of social and economic policies on social exclusion of vulnerable groups and identifies types and degrees of social deprivation. The second study focuses on developing and evaluating regional statistical indicators of social deprivation and investigates the emergence of new forms of social exclusion. The report considers common characteristics that drive poverty and social exclusion, such as poor employment situation, adequacy and coverage of social protection syste.

Combating social exclusion is one of the key objectives of pension systems. This report focuses on social exclusion among the elderly (defined as the 55 age group) in the EU's member states. Social exclusion has been conceptualised as a state of individuals in relation to four dimensions. Two of these dimensions - material deprivation and social rights - are of a structural nature. The other two - social participation and normative integration - pertain to social settings and subcultural factors. Theoretically and empirically, the dimensions refer to one latent underlying social exclusion variable. The original method for measuring social exclusion was devised and tested for the Netherlands, making use of a dedicated dataset. In this study, the measuring instrument has been extended to EU member states, performing secondary analyses of various surveys. These datasets do not contain information about normative integration, but for each of the other three dimensions it has turned out to be possible to construct valid indices at the EU level. Two indices that are more general have been calculated as well: one is a combined index of material deprivation plus social rights and the other is a macro aggregate covering all three dimensions. The outcomes suggest that the elderly in the Nordic countries and the Netherlands are the least excluded, in terms of both the three separate dimensions of social exclusion and the more general indices. The Continental and Anglo-Saxon countries follow close behind. Social exclusion among the elderly is generally higher in the Mediterranean countries. The highest social exclusion scores are to be found in the EU's new member states in Eastern Europe, especially in the Baltic States and Poland. In all EU member states exclusion in terms of social participation increases as people grow older. Material deprivation shows the reverse pattern: in almost all countries, this form of social exclusion decreases with age. With regard to access to social rights - operationalised here in terms of adequate housing and access to medical/dental care - the picture is less straightforward. In nearly all Mediterranean and Eastern European countries, the elderly are more excluded than are the non-elderly in this respect. In the Nordic countries, Germany and the UK, the opposite occurs: access to social rights improves with rising age. In all countries, poor health is an important factor increasing the risk of social exclusion across all dimensions. Household income has a strong effect on material deprivation and access to social rights in most countries. Age and gender cannot be considered serious risk factors for any of the dimensions of social exclusion after the impact of other variables has been controlled for. Multilevel analyses show that only a small part of the country variation in social exclusion (as measured by the combined index) can be attributed to differences in the composition of the population in connection with health, education level, age and gender. A larger part is related to country differences in household incomes. A further (albeit rather small) part has to do with specific traits at the country level. Elderly persons are less excluded if countries attain a higher level of national wealth, spend more on social protection, show less income inequality and generate higher life expectancy. Diverging institutional arrangements - as defined by a classification of countries by their social security and pension regimes - also explain some of the variation in social exclusion. After controlling for the impact of income inequality, however, this effect largely disappears. This result suggests that such regime types mainly influence social exclusion indirectly, through their effects on income inequality. The latter is the country trait with the highest unique contribution to social exclusion of the elderly in the EU.

Drawing on interdisciplinary, cross-national perspectives, this open access book contributes to the development of a coherent scientific discourse on social exclusion of older people. The book considers five domains of exclusion (services; economic; social relations; civic and socio-cultural; and community and spatial domains), with three chapters dedicated to analysing different dimensions of each exclusion domain. The book also examines the interrelationships between different forms of exclusion, and how outcomes and processes of different kinds of exclusion can be related to one another. In doing so, major cross-cutting themes, such as rights and identity, inclusive service infrastructures, and displacement of marginalised older adult groups, are considered. Finally, in a series of chapters written by international policy stakeholders and policy researchers, the book analyses key policies relevant to social exclusion and older people, including debates linked to sustainable development, EU policy and social rights, welfare and pensions systems, and planning and development. The book’s approach helps to illuminate the comprehensive multidimensionality of social exclusion, and provides insight into the relative nature of disadvantage in later life. With 77 contributors working across 28 nations, the book presents a forward-looking research agenda for social exclusion amongst older people, and will be an important resource for students, researchers and policy stakeholders working on ageing.

The year 2000's most significant international event was, almost certainly, neither political nor military, but scientific - the announcement, in June, that the human genome had been almost totally decoded. Future generations may well see this as a major turning point, opening the way to radical changes in diagnosis, prognosis, and medical treatment. Often compared with the space programme, this vast enterprise still generates misgivings: this new power, which human beings now have, to modify the genetic heritage of living creatures raises fundamentally new ethical questions - and society as a whole will have to find the answers. In fact, the accelerating pace of scientific and technical progress seems to be reviving atavistic anxieties, some rational, others less so. Recent public-health crises, including the mad cow disease' scare, which lasted into 2000, have fuelled these fears. The public's rejection of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) - verging on a crusade in some countries - tells its own story. As regards conflict, 2000 saw the Middle East peace process grind to a halt, and the Intifada resume. In Europe, the situation in Kosovo and Chechnya, both the scenes of fighting in 1999, stayed precarious. Peace and democracy did score some successes, however, particularly in Europe: the centre-left's victory in Croatia, sweeping former President Tudjman's party off the scene, the democratic party's triumph in Bosnia, and the fall of the Milosevic regime in Serbia.

The social, political and economic transformations experienced by the formerly socialist countries of central and eastern Europe since the beginning of the 1990s have resulted in abrupt shifts in demographic trends, whose consequences on nuptiality, fertility, mortality and migration will be significant and irreversible. The present study analyses and offers explanations about this process and compares these developments with the demographic changes that occurred earlier in western Europe. A thorough knowledge of these demographic trends offers an essential tool for social policy makers and researchers and the comparative approach of the study furthers our understanding of the underlying processes taking place in all European countries