Recoge: 1. The challenges and opportunities of globalisation and change - 2. An integrated flexicurity approach - 3. Flexicurity policies - 4. Flexicurity and social dialogue - 5. Developing common principles of flexicurity - 6. Flexicurity pathways - 7. The financial dimension of flexicurity - 8. Next steps: flexicurity and the Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs - 9. Annex.

'Converging Europe' evaluates the impact of European integration on social policy development since the launch and re-launch of the Lisbon strategy discussing the challenges posed by the still unfolding global economic crisis of 2007-2009. Given the unsettling economic conditions, does European coordination of social policies generate more social cohesion and integration or growing xenophobia, nationalism and exclusion? Informed by diverse theoretical perspectives, this book brings together a team of international experts working on an extensive range of policy issues central to the Lisbon agenda such as labour market policies, social protection systems, and social exclusion/poverty. Contributions assess the interfaces between European integration, the Lisbon strategy and social policy in three groups of countries related to the EU: old member states; the new member states; and a candidate country - Turkey. The richness of content and data allows rigorous analysis and critical comparative insights not only on the social outcomes of the Lisbon strategy but also more broadly on the dynamics and dimensions of European social policy. Pioneering the scholarly reflections on the repercussions of the global economic crisis of 2007-2009 for both the road map drawn at Lisbon and viability of national systems of social provision in Europe, this book is an important acquisition for policy makers and academics alike.

In recent years, the concept of flexicurity has come to occupy a central place in political and academic debates regarding employment and social policy. It fosters a view in which the need for continuously increasing flexibility is the basic assumption, and the understanding of security increasingly moves from social protection to self-insurance or individual adaptability. Moreover, it rejects the traditional contradictions between flexibility and security, blending the two into a single notion and thus depoliticizing the relationships between capital and labour. This volume provides a critical discussion of the flexicurity concept, the theories upon which it is built and the ideas that it transmits about work, unemployment and social justice. It shows that flexicurity fosters the further individualization of social protection, an increase in precariousness and the further weakening of labour in relation to capital. The authors present a series of alternative theoretical, normative and policy approaches that provide due attention to the collective and political dimension of vulnerability and allow for the development of new societal projects based on alternative values and assumptions.

Capitalism in its modern form has become universal and has a presence in practically every country in the world, including those which once called themselves Communist. This book studies its effects on different labor markets, from those linked to highly tertiary economies (EU-27, USA and Japan, to the most productive economies, such as China, and on to economic models that are in full transition from secondary to tertiary economies, as is the case in several Latin American countries.

Poverty has become a challenge for European societies. Employment is often considered to be a key route out of poverty, whereas unemployment is seen as a major cause of poverty and social exclusion. Employment does not prevent poverty among the working population, however, and low-income employment has become an important policy issue in Europe. Empowerment of those experiencing extreme poverty in their daily life is one strategy to combat this phenomenon. Empowerment provides individuals living in poverty with the tools which enhance their ability to deal with the situation. This publication is designed to assist policy makers and service providers at national and local levels to develop effective strategies to improve the situation of low-income workers and to empower people experiencing extreme poverty in Europe. it is an important contribution To The implementation of the Council of Europe's Revised Social Cohesion Strategy, As well as To The European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, launched by the European Union in 2010.

Today, many people agree that the EU lacks solidarity and needs a social dimension. This debate is not new, but until now the notion of a 'social Europe' remained vague and elusive. To make progress, we need a coherent conception of the reasons behind, and the agenda for, not a 'social Europe', but a new idea: a European Social Union. We must motivate, define, and demarcate an appropriate notion of European solidarity. We must also understand the legal and political obstacles, and how these can be tacked. In short, we need unequivocal answers to questions of why, what, and how: on that basis, we can define a clear-cut normative and institutional concept. That is the remit of this book: it provides an in-depth interdisciplinary examination of the rationale and the feasibility of a European Social Union. Outstanding scholars and top-level practitioners reflect on obstacles and solutions, from an economic, social, philosophical, legal, and political perspective.

In Justice in the EU: The Emergence of Transnational Solidarity, Floris de Witte argues that European Union law can be understood as an instrument for the elaboration of what justice is, means, and requires on the level beyond the nation state. Approaching the question of justice from the European perspective, however, challenges us to think beyond the contractarian idea that equates justice with national political self-determination. A proper model of justice demands a tiered institutional and normative understanding of justice, involving both the nation state and the EU, which can make sense of the new ties between individual citizens that the process of European integration continues to generate. It also requires that we construct a theory of transnational solidarity that can explain what those new ties tell us about our transnational obligations of justice. This book tackles three issues in turn. It explains which precise institutional and normative structures are indispensable in the pursuit of justice; how the European Union can be understood to increase our capacity for the attainment of justice; and formulates a theory of transnational solidarity that informs the interaction between national and European spheres. Three different types of transnational solidarity are identified and carefully traced throughout the case law of the Court of Justice: market solidarity, communitarian solidarity, and aspirational solidarity. Read together, these three transnational solidarities tell us exactly what justice means in the EU.