Democracy and Capabilities for Voice

Social rights in terms of welfare and work are disappearing from the European political agenda, the more so as austerity is assumed to be the only imperative response to the financial crisis. This book, which collects the results of the leading European integrated research project CAPRIGHT («Resources, Rights and Capabilities: In Search of Social Foundations for Europe»), argues for an alternative way out, which puts the enhancement of citizens' capabilities at the core of the European social model. The contributors show why and how a democracy grounded in economic and social life where a plurality of voices may be heard, where citizens participate in collective bargaining and public deliberation is crucial for the Europe's future. The contributions in this book are the result of a four-year period of research and workshops (2007-2010), with the main focus on how lifelong learning, the labour market, employment and social protection combine in terms of personal experience and whether the resources available at certain key points are sufficient, when factors creating risk or discontinuity can impede personal development.

Autorentext

Ota De Leonardis is Professor of Sociology of Cultural Processes, Director of the Research Centre of Sociological Studies on Public Action, and member of the teaching board of the European Doctorate in Urban Studies, University of Milan Bicocca. Her research interests are in institutional changes in the governance of welfare policies and social justice, public knowledge and democracy.
Serafino Negrelli is Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Milano Bicocca and Director of the Labour & Society Research Centre. He is a member of the Council of Scholars of the Doctoral Program on Sociology at the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane. He has directed many research projects and empirical surveys on economic sociology, the sociology of work and industrial relations.
Robert Salais is an economist. He is Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Nantes, and a former Director of the CNRS Research Centre Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l'Economie at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan. He is also currently an Associate at the French-German Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin. His research focuses on institutional economics, labour and social justice issues in historical perspective.

Inhalt

Contents: Ota De Leonardis/Serafino Negrelli: A New Perspective on Welfare Policies. Why and How the Capability for Voice Matters - Ota De Leonardis: Hard Cases. In Search of Capability for Voice in Job Insertion Policies - Jean-Michel Bonvin/Emilie Rosenstein: Local Agencies as Institutional Conversion Factors of Resources into Capabilities - Benedicte Zimmermann: Having a Voice and Participating in a Company - Isabelle Ferreras: The Collective Aspects of Individual Freedom. A Case Study in the Service Sector - Serafino Negrelli: Capability for Voice and the Deficit in the EU Democracy - Steven Gascoigne: Judgements in Justice and Labour Market Reactivation. A Swedish Historical Case Study - Jurgen Kaedtler: German Social Partnership in Crisis. Proof of Value or Crisis of Social Partnership - Simon Deakin/Aristea Koukiadaki: Law and Capability for Voice in the UK. Legal Strategies for the Implementation of Social Rights in the European Union - Bernard Friot: Monetary Resources, a Core Issue for Capabilities. The Example of Retirement Pensions - Robert Salais: Labour and the Politics of Freedoms.