Description
Book Synopsis Social quality thinking emerged from a critique of one-sided policies by breaking through the limitations previously set by purely economistic paradigms. By tracing its expansion and presenting different aspects of social quality theory, this volume provides an overview of a more nuanced approach, which assesses societal progress and introduces proposals that are relevant for policy making. Crucially, important components emerge with research by scholars from Asia, particularly China, eastern Europe, and other regions beyond western Europe, the theory’s place of origin. As this volume shows, this rich diversity of approaches and their cross-national comparisons reveal the increasingly important role of social quality theory for informing political debates on development and sustainability.
Table of Contents Introduction
Ka Lin and Peter Herrmann
Chapter 1. Reconceptualization of Social Quality
Anne Fairweather, Borut Roncevic, Maj Rydbjerg, Marie Valentova and Mojca Zajc
Chapter 2. Indicators of Social Quality: Outcomes of the European Scientific Network
Laurent J.G. van der Maesen and Alan Walker
Chapter 3. Social Quality and Welfare System Sustainability
Alan Walker
Chapter 4. The Prototype of Social Quality Theory and Its Applicability to Asian Societies
Ka Lin
Chapter 5. Economic Performance, Social Progress and Social Quality
Peter Hermann
Chapter 6. The Human and the Social: A Comparison of the Discourses of Human Development, Human Security and Social Quality
Des Gasper
Chapter 7. Social Quality in Britain: A Welfare State?
Sue Hacking
Chapter 8. Social Quality in Sweden
Göran Therborn and Sonia Therborn
Chapter 9. Visions of the Sustainable Welfare Society: Extending Social Quality into an Asian/Developmental Context
Yoshinori Hiroi
Chapter 10. Risks of Society Stability and Precarity of Employment: A Look at Russia
Vyacheslav Bobkov, Olesya Veredyuk and Ulvi Aliyev
Chapter 11. The Rational Actor Reform Paradigm: Delivering the Goods but Destroying Public Trust?
Peter Taylor-Gooby
Social Quality: An Invitation to Dance
Wolfgang Beck
Index
