What is the european social model? an aproximation based on Spanish case

The public perception of the EU in Spain varies greatly. The most positive aspects of Spanish membership are associated with the consolidation of democracy, economic growth, the introduction of the euro, the growth in employment and structural and cohesion funds, the increase in the female participation rate, and the equal opportunities policies. The analysts are in favour of common objectives in the employment policy and multi-level government. The less positive aspects of the EU are the risks of losing social protection and loss of employment in some sectors due to mergers of multinationals and delocalization of companies towards Eastern Europe. The continuous demands for reform of the welfare state, the toughening of the conditions of access to social benefit and the reform of the labour market are also seen as problematic issues. Risks of competitive cuts and social dumping.

The European Social Survey. Methodological aspects

From a scientific point of view, surveys are undoubtedly a valuable tool for the knowledge of the social and political reality. They are widely used in the social sciences research. However, the researcher's task is often disturbed by a series of deficiencies related to some technical aspects that make difficult both the inference and the comparison. The main aim of the present paper is to report and justify the European Social Survey's technical specifications addressed to avoid and/or minimize such deficiencies. The article also gives a characterization of the non-respondents in Spain obtained from the analysis of the 2002 fieldwork data file.

The Benefits of building barrier-free: a contingent valuation of accessibilty as an attribute of housing

Estimating the social benefits of barrier-free building has always required indirect solutions, such as calculating the savings in social services, hospitalisation or adaptations made possible by the increase in accessibility. This research uses the Contingent Valuation Method to gain a direct appraisal of the benefits from barrier-free housing. When comparing two similar dwellings, with the only difference being their accessibility conditions, the 1,007 randomly chosen households that answered the direct survey would pay, on average 12.5 per cent more for being barrier-free. None of the different appraisals made on accessibility costs reaches 5 per cent. This confirms the social profitability of building without barriers and shows the potential size of the private market for those housing developers that meet the demand. Accessibility is a general concern, an economic good or attribute that most households value, irrespective of the physical conditions of their members.

Europeanization and the Emergence of a European Society

This article examines the European integration process from a sociological perspective, where the main focus is the examination of the social consequences of the integration process. The European Union has advanced significantly in the economic, social, and political integration processes. This has resulted in a rapid Europeanization of behavior. There has hardly been any progress, however, toward the development of European social groups. This article examines the causes of this lag and concludes that it is highly unlikely that in the middle run there be significant progress toward the Europeanization of society.

Occupational sex-composition and earnings : individual and social effects

This paper investigates the micro and macro-level factors affecting the empirical association between occupational sex-composition and individual earnings. This is done in two analytical steps using data from the second round of the European Social Survey. In a first step, country-fixed-effects regressions are used to test the extent to which job-specialization, gender attitudes and the relative supply of domestic work can account for the impact of occupational sex-composition on earnings. In accordance with previous research, it is found that all these micro-level variables have a significant effect on the analyzed association, yet only job-specialization can explain it away by itself. In a second analytical step, macro-level interactions are tested under the hypothesis that defamilialization policies reduce the pay-offs of sphere specialization by sex, generating incentives for all types of women to invest in the labor market. Empirical results suggest that gender attitudes and the relative supply of housework are much more loosely associated to earning in social-democratic and former communist societies than in conservative or liberal regimes. This finding is interpreted as consistent with the defamilialization hypothesis.

Women's employment and the adult caring burden

Demographic ageing is increasing pensions, health and social services spending and threatening the future balance of public budgets. Providing home care can help to curb health expenditure and it may improve elderly welfare also, but EU states have chosen different policies in providing home are. Main differences are related with source of financing and eligibility criteria but also with the kind of benefits (benefits in cash or in kind). How these different options affect welfare and carers’ employment opportunities is the core of this research. Home care growth is going to be more efficient as far as it pro motes employment and, public revenues consequently. Using microdata from the European Community Household Panel, British and Spanish means tested programs are compared with German and Austrian ‘in cash’ benefits, and with Danish ‘in kind’ benefits also. The results show that Danish policies are the most efficient and equitable while the British and Spanish ones are the worst.

Improving social measurements: the experience of the ESS first rounds in Spain

With the two aims of monitoring social change and improving social measurement, the European Social Survey is now closing its third round. This paper shows how the accumulated experience of the two first rounds has been used to validate the questionnaire, better adapt the sampling design to the country characteristics and efficiently commit fieldwork in Spain. For example, the dynamic character of the population nowadays makes necessary to estimated design effects at each round from the data of the previous round. The paper also demonstrates how, starting with a response rate of 52% at first round, a 66% response rate is achieved at the third round thanks to an extensive quality control conducted by the polling agency and the ESS national team and based on a detailed analysis of the non-response cases and the incidences reported by the interviewed in the contact form.

Construyendo las bases para una comparación fiable: la Encuesta Social Europea

Surveys are a valuable instrument to find out about the social and politicalreality of our context. However, the work of researchers is often limitedby a number of handicaps that are mainly two. On one hand, the samples areusually low technical quality ones and the fieldwork is not carried out inthe finest conditions. On the other hand, many surveys are not especiallydesigned to allow their comparison, a precisely appreciated operation inpolitical research. The article presents the European Social Survey andjustifies its methodological bases. The survey, promoted by the EuropeanScience Foundation and the European Commission, is born from the collectiveeffort of the scientific community with the explicit aim to establishcertain quality standards in the sample design and in the carrying out ofthe fieldwork so as to guarantee the quality of the data and allow eachcomparison between countries.

Improving social measurements: The experience of the ESS first rounds in Spain

With the two aims of monitoring social change and improving social measurement, the European Social Survey is now closing its third round. This paper shows how the accumulated experience of the two first rounds has been used to validate the questionnaire, better adapt the sampling design to the country characteristics and efficiently commit fieldwork in Spain. For example, the dynamic character of the population nowadays makes necessary to estimated design effects at each round from the data of the previous round. The paper also demonstrates how, starting with a response rate of 52% at first round, a 66% response rate is achieved at the third round thanks to an extensive quality control conducted by the polling agency and the ESS national team and based on a detailed analysis of the non-response cases and the incidences reported by the interviewed in the contact form.

El control de la Carta Social Europea por actores no estatales: el protocolo de 22 de junio 1995 para las reclamaciones colectivas

El texto analiza los motivos por los que el Protocolo de 1995 sobre reclamaciones colectivas no sea un medio de supervisión alternativo a los informes estatales del artículo 21 de la Carta Social Europea, sino más bien una herramienta de uso marginal.

Decentralization and the Welfare State: What Do Citizens Perceive?

Trust in public institutions and public policies are generally perceived as a precondition for economic recovery in times of recession. Recent empirical evidence tends to find a positive link between decentralization and trust. But our knowledge about whether decentralization – through increased trust – improves the perception of the delivery and effectiveness of public policies is still limited. In this paper we estimate the impact of fiscal and political decentralization on the perception of the state of the education system and of health services, by using the 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 waves of the European social survey. The analysis of the views of 160,000 individuals in 31 European countries indicates that while the effect of fiscal decentralization on the perception of the state of the health and education system is limited, political decentralization clearly affects citizen’s satisfaction with education and health delivery. The influence of political decentralization, however, is highly contingent on whether we consider the capacity of the local or regional government to exercise authority over its citizens (self-rule) or to influence policy at the national level (shared-rule). Keywords: Education, health, satisfaction, fiscal and political decentralization, Europe. JEL codes: H11, H77

La renda mínima d'inserció: una eina útil d’inserció social en el món local

La crisi actual ha agreujat la situació socioeconòmica de nombroses persones i famílies , esdevenint una realitat social cada vegada més complexa . Aquest nou context, ha portat a que aquesta nova bossa de persones hagin de recórrer a demanar suport als serveis socials bàsics. Persones que fins aquest moment havien estat en una situació normalitzada i en aquests moments estan en el llindar de l’exclusió social. El treball Sorgeix de la necessitat del món local, concretament de l’Àrea Bàsica de Serveis Socials del Consell Comarcal de l’Alt Penedès, de disposar d’eines d’inserció social per a les persones perceptores de la renda mínima d’inserció de la comarca, que formen part d’aquest col·lectiu en risc d’exclusió. Planteja la importància que des del món local es creïn aliances amb entitats , associacions diverses i de diferents àmbits , per tal d’adequar les respostes i les mesures d’inserció social segons la realitat de cada persona i família a través de diferents tasques col·laboratives, dins la seva comunitat, el seu entorn més immediat. Presenta la renda mínima com una via útil i necessària per lluitar contra la pobresa i a favor de la inclusió social

El reto de formar emprendedores en trabajo social

Las dificultades con que se encuentran los recién diplomados en trabajo social para insertarse en el mercado laboral, cuando aún se necesitan más recursos y hay muchas posibilidades de generar nuevos servicios de proximidad a la comunidad, nos plantea a los formadores el desafío de tener que preparar a los futuros profesionales para ser emprendedores en iniciativas sociales con el doble objetivo de aumentar la oferta de servicios a la población y a la vez las posibilidades de inserción profesional. La comunicación que propongo partiría del análisis de esta paradoja que todos percibimos para fundamentar la inclusión de nuevos contenidos en el plan de estudios de nuestra Universidad. Se tratará de exponer mi experiencia docente de cómo crear iniciativas a partir de trabajar, el Plan de empresa dentro de la asignatura de Administración y gestión de servicios sociales. Expondré como he organizado la materia, la confección de materiales y todo lo relacionado con la didáctica y la metodología puesto que se trata de una planificación compleja que aborda tanto los aspectos técnicos de la actividad como otros propios de la creación de empresas productivas. Intentaré terminar con una reflexión sobre qué supone este cambio de registro para nuestros alumnos y las interpelaciones y dificultades que también supone para el docente, con el ánimo de que pueda inspirar a otros colegas o para que, entre todos, valoremos la validez de incorporar este nuevo rol dentro del perfil profesional del trabajador social para un mundo mejor.

Educación social y evaluación: evaluar para mejorar y transformar

En este artículo se desarrollan las características de la evaluación de servicios y programas socioeducativos, entendiendo que ésta debe ser un instrumento de mejora de la acción social, que posibilita identificar los aspectos positivos de una práctica técnico-profesional adecuada y que permite incrementar la autonomía de los profesionales. Asi, se apuntan unas consideraciones sobre el concepto de evaluación y sobre el sentido y finalidad de ésta, considerándola como un elemento de calidad y de mejora de la acción socioeducativa, valorando su utilidad social, destacando la falta de tradición evaluativa en educación social y señalando el carácter dialéctico de la evaluación, la cual siempre incluye, en relación inversamente proporcional, elementos de control y transformación. Posteriormente, se afirma que los diseños de evaluación deben adaptarse a la singularidad y características propias de laeducación social. Y, finalmente, se señalan algunas de las características que mejor definen los diseños de evaluación en educación social.

Prediction of the economic cost of individual long-term care in the Spanish population

Pensions together with savings and investments during active life are key elements of retirement planning. Motivation for personal choices about the standard of living, bequest and the replacement ratio of pension with respect to last salary income must be considered. This research contributes to the financial planning by helping to quantify long-term care economic needs. We estimate life expectancy from retirement age onwards. The economic cost of care per unit of service is linked to the expected time of needed care and the intensity of required services. The expected individual cost of long-term care from an onset of dependence is estimated separately for men and women. Assumptions on the mortality of the dependent people compared to the general population are introduced. Parameters defining eligibility for various forms of coverage by the universal public social care of the welfare system are addressed. The impact of the intensity of social services on individual predictions is assessed, and a partial coverage by standard private insurance products is also explored. Data were collected by the Spanish Institute of Statistics in two surveys conducted on the general Spanish population in 1999 and in 2008. Official mortality records and life table trends were used to create realistic scenarios for longevity. We find empirical evidence that the public long-term care system in Spain effectively mitigates the risk of incurring huge lifetime costs. We also find that the most vulnerable categories are citizens with moderate disabilities that do not qualify to obtain public social care support. In the Spanish case, the trends between 1999 and 2008 need to be further explored.