Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EUROSHIP (Closing gaps in social citizenship. New tools to foster social resilience in Europe)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-04-01 bis 2023-07-31
EUROSHIP has provided new and gender-sensitive knowledge about the effectiveness of social protection policies targeted at reducing poverty and social exclusion in Europe.
Women and men at risk of poverty and social exclusion is a group that is strategically important to address in the endeavors to establish common minimum standards and promote upward social convergence in the EU. By focusing on target populations the EU is aiming to address, EUROSHIP has provided new insights about the factors that foster or hamper effective cooperation between the EU and national governments in delivering a socially inclusive, cohesive and resilient Europe. This includes analysis of national initiatives and the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights.
The project has put into sharp focus the opportunities, challenges and responses women and men with low education and low income encounter in the face of rapid policy transformations of social protection systems in different institutional and societal contexts. Understanding how these challenges are unfolding the research team has:
1. examined the social protection systems (including the role of minimum income schemes);
2. analyzed the experiences of three vulnerable population groups (youth at risk of in-work poverty, prime age precarious workers with care obligations, and low-income persons with disabilities, including the elderly with long-term care needs);
3. interrogated the implications of introducing digital technologies to deliver social protection systems and address some of the problems arising from this broader social and economic transformation; and
4. analysed how the EU may contribute to close current gaps in social citizenship in a multilevel and territorially diverse Europe.
A basic issue has been whether public policies of relevance for persons at risk of poverty have succeed in creating and sustaining the necessary conditions for people’s opportunities to participate as a full and equal members of society and if it does not, what are the considerations or factors that lie behind this absence.
Women and men at risk of poverty and social exclusion is a group that is strategically important to address in the endeavors to establish common minimum standards and promote upward social convergence in the EU. By focusing on target populations the EU is aiming to address, EUROSHIP has provided new insights about the factors that foster or hamper effective cooperation between the EU and national governments in delivering a socially inclusive, cohesive and resilient Europe. This includes analysis of national initiatives and the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights.
The project has put into sharp focus the opportunities, challenges and responses women and men with low education and low income encounter in the face of rapid policy transformations of social protection systems in different institutional and societal contexts. Understanding how these challenges are unfolding the research team has:
1. examined the social protection systems (including the role of minimum income schemes);
2. analyzed the experiences of three vulnerable population groups (youth at risk of in-work poverty, prime age precarious workers with care obligations, and low-income persons with disabilities, including the elderly with long-term care needs);
3. interrogated the implications of introducing digital technologies to deliver social protection systems and address some of the problems arising from this broader social and economic transformation; and
4. analysed how the EU may contribute to close current gaps in social citizenship in a multilevel and territorially diverse Europe.
A basic issue has been whether public policies of relevance for persons at risk of poverty have succeed in creating and sustaining the necessary conditions for people’s opportunities to participate as a full and equal members of society and if it does not, what are the considerations or factors that lie behind this absence.
EUROSHIP has collected and analysed new primary data from seven European countries: Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
The data collection and analyses have taken place in three steps:
1. The research teams have synthesised policy documents and existing statistics and findings from earlier research on (i) minimum income policies, (ii) the role of the welfare state in fostering the financial independence of young people, (iii) policies to foster work and family life balance for precarious workers, (iv) institutional constellations of long-term care, and (v) the effect and need to adapt social protection policies to the digitalized economy. Additionally the project has critically assessed the adequacy and suitability of existing EU social indicators and mapped the extent of poverty and social exclusion across Europe.
2. The research teams have collected a set of coordinated semi-structured life-course interviews with women and men from three different generations (born around 1945-1950, 1975-1980 and 1990-1995). The data set has allowed us to examine the historical changes in opportunities for exercising social citizenship, as reflected in the subjective narratives of the individuals. Using a common guide of topics the team has interviewed women and men in each age cohort in each of the 7 countries (207 interviews in total). The life course perspective has allowed the researchers to analyse the lived experiences of women and men in their exercise of social citizenship in different stages of life.
3. The research teams have conducted interviews with other relevant informants (policy experts from the government, labour and civil society organisations) in each of the seven countries in which the EUROSHIP project has done fieldwork (70 interviews in total) and 16 interviews at the EU level. The interviews have been semi-structured, following a common interview guide in all the countries. The research teams have additionally collected data from an online survey with 29 representatives of national statistical offices and social indicator experts.
Through the active involvement of national and European stakeholders, and the organization of focus forums with stakeholder representatives in the seven countries, EUROSHIP has developed policy recommendations on how to strengthen social citizenship at the national and EU level.
The results demonstrate that more needs to be done to enforce people’s right to a minimum income in line with Principle 14 of the European Pillar of Social Rights, which is why EUROSHIP has called for a legally binding Directive on an Adequate Minimum Income. Moreover, stronger and better governance of the social dimension of the EU is needed. The EUROSHIP Policy Briefs provide more detailed and policy specific recommendations.
As of September 2023 the research teams have published 10 journal articles and book chapters, 1 PhD dissertation, 33 EUROSHIP working papers and 10 policy briefs (available on the EUROSHIP website). The research teams are currently preparing edited volumes from the project. The team has also produced an animation film and several videos (available on YouTube).
The data collection and analyses have taken place in three steps:
1. The research teams have synthesised policy documents and existing statistics and findings from earlier research on (i) minimum income policies, (ii) the role of the welfare state in fostering the financial independence of young people, (iii) policies to foster work and family life balance for precarious workers, (iv) institutional constellations of long-term care, and (v) the effect and need to adapt social protection policies to the digitalized economy. Additionally the project has critically assessed the adequacy and suitability of existing EU social indicators and mapped the extent of poverty and social exclusion across Europe.
2. The research teams have collected a set of coordinated semi-structured life-course interviews with women and men from three different generations (born around 1945-1950, 1975-1980 and 1990-1995). The data set has allowed us to examine the historical changes in opportunities for exercising social citizenship, as reflected in the subjective narratives of the individuals. Using a common guide of topics the team has interviewed women and men in each age cohort in each of the 7 countries (207 interviews in total). The life course perspective has allowed the researchers to analyse the lived experiences of women and men in their exercise of social citizenship in different stages of life.
3. The research teams have conducted interviews with other relevant informants (policy experts from the government, labour and civil society organisations) in each of the seven countries in which the EUROSHIP project has done fieldwork (70 interviews in total) and 16 interviews at the EU level. The interviews have been semi-structured, following a common interview guide in all the countries. The research teams have additionally collected data from an online survey with 29 representatives of national statistical offices and social indicator experts.
Through the active involvement of national and European stakeholders, and the organization of focus forums with stakeholder representatives in the seven countries, EUROSHIP has developed policy recommendations on how to strengthen social citizenship at the national and EU level.
The results demonstrate that more needs to be done to enforce people’s right to a minimum income in line with Principle 14 of the European Pillar of Social Rights, which is why EUROSHIP has called for a legally binding Directive on an Adequate Minimum Income. Moreover, stronger and better governance of the social dimension of the EU is needed. The EUROSHIP Policy Briefs provide more detailed and policy specific recommendations.
As of September 2023 the research teams have published 10 journal articles and book chapters, 1 PhD dissertation, 33 EUROSHIP working papers and 10 policy briefs (available on the EUROSHIP website). The research teams are currently preparing edited volumes from the project. The team has also produced an animation film and several videos (available on YouTube).
EUROSHIP has developed a life-course approach to the analysis of poverty, with an emphasis on the lived consequences of social disadvantage and the way these are structured by different institutional arrangements across European welfare states, leading to diverse manifestations of social citizenship.
EUROSHIP has achieved a more dynamic institutional analysis of welfare states by developing and applying an agency-centred model that recognises diversities and intersectional inequalities in capabilities among population groups over the life-course. A majority of the social policy literature has ignored how human diversity in needs and conditions for participating in society affect their risk of poverty and social exclusion. Different from most of the existing literature on poverty and social disadvantage EUROSHIP has systematically examined intersectional inequalities in the design, implementation and take up of social rights and the reasons why the inequalities exist. The empirical analyses incorporate in a structured way, and through a cross-national comparative lens, the experiences of individuals on how they have experienced economic hardship. Thus, EUROSHIP transmits the perspectives of several target groups of social policy at national and European levels.
EUROSHIP has develop several new analytic tools; a multidimensional composite indicator - the European Social Rights Indicator, a new typology of long term care policies, and the concept of digital welfare ecosystems to capture the digital transformation of public services. The models, concepts, and indicators we have developed in EUROSHIP will support the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights.
The project has formulated evidence-based and innovative policy options for how the EU and national governments may move forward in fostering upward social convergence, make the social dimension of EU citizenship more relevant for individuals facing social and economic vulnerabilities, and foster stronger social cohesion across Europe. Thus, the EUROSHIP project has provided new knowledge in support of the Sustainable Development Goals no. 1, 8 and 10 in Europe.
EUROSHIP has achieved a more dynamic institutional analysis of welfare states by developing and applying an agency-centred model that recognises diversities and intersectional inequalities in capabilities among population groups over the life-course. A majority of the social policy literature has ignored how human diversity in needs and conditions for participating in society affect their risk of poverty and social exclusion. Different from most of the existing literature on poverty and social disadvantage EUROSHIP has systematically examined intersectional inequalities in the design, implementation and take up of social rights and the reasons why the inequalities exist. The empirical analyses incorporate in a structured way, and through a cross-national comparative lens, the experiences of individuals on how they have experienced economic hardship. Thus, EUROSHIP transmits the perspectives of several target groups of social policy at national and European levels.
EUROSHIP has develop several new analytic tools; a multidimensional composite indicator - the European Social Rights Indicator, a new typology of long term care policies, and the concept of digital welfare ecosystems to capture the digital transformation of public services. The models, concepts, and indicators we have developed in EUROSHIP will support the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights.
The project has formulated evidence-based and innovative policy options for how the EU and national governments may move forward in fostering upward social convergence, make the social dimension of EU citizenship more relevant for individuals facing social and economic vulnerabilities, and foster stronger social cohesion across Europe. Thus, the EUROSHIP project has provided new knowledge in support of the Sustainable Development Goals no. 1, 8 and 10 in Europe.