Authors: Pablo Sanz de Miguel, in cooperation with Julia Frías, Maria Caprile, Carsten Jørgensen, Szilvia Borbély, Katalin Bácsi, and
Karsten Krüger
Year: 2019
Abstract: Right wing populism and nationalism, while not a new phenomenon, has in the recent years taken hold in many countries, including several within the European Union; sometimes as opposition, sometimes as government. Often, the ideological mixture of welfare chauvinism and nationalism is intended to appeal to the working class, with different degrees of success.
Membership of a Trade Union does not always mean, like it used to, immunity to these ideas, as these parties have abandoned their explicit neoliberal policies (at least in public discourse) and have taken what traditionally were leftwing issues such as social justice or redistribution to appeal to what they perceive as the ‘losers of globalisation’.
For this purpose, the study analyses several EU countries with different industrial relations (Spain, Denmark, Germany, and Hungary), welfare states and Trade Union history and density. It provides a clear definition of ‘National Populist’ or Populist Radical Right Parties, bringing conceptual clarity under the current academic concepts and theoretical framework used to study these issues. It displays the state of play in each country, identifying the key actors and parties, and what strategies are undertaken by Trade Unions to prevent their members from voting for these political options.
Published online by: European Economic and Social Committee [https://www.eesc.europa.eu]

Authors: de Gier, Erik & Warmerdam, J.
Year: 2009
Abstract: This book integrates the various country reports about (1) the discourse of the Globalised Knowledge-based Society in six EU countries Austria, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain; (2) the perception of (new) social risks in these countries; and (3) the role and functions of universities. The six country reports were elaborated in the course of the project NESOR – New Social Risk in the European knowledge society and higher education. The European Union cofounded this project through the Socrates programme.
Although in advance a common format of the country reports was agreed, the final output of reports proved to be rather diverse. To some extent this is caused by the fact that each country finds itself in a different developmental stage and speed on the road to the Globalised Knowledge-Based Society and also by the fact that actual discourses and policies are deeply embedded in national cultures. So, this trans-national report will not be a true and tough comparative exercise in the strict methodological sense of the word. What it does offer is an in-depth insight into national debates and policies and above that, also some common felt problems with respect to the Globalised Knowledge-Based Society. What you can expect in the remaining part of this report is not first of all a more or less descriptive summary of the various national reports, but an attempt to develop a sort of coherent transnational perspective of what means Globalised Knowledge-Based Society.

Authors: Baumgartl, Bernd & Mariani, Michele
Year: 2008

Resume:
The book resumes national studies carried out in the course of the project NESOR (New Social Risk in the European knowledge society and higher education). This project, cofounded by the European Union through the Socrates programme, analysed the question about the role and profile of Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) in the European knowledge society. It provides a rich picture on the state-of-the art of the implementation of the Bologna Process and asks for future role of EU higher education institutions in the European knowledge society, especially with respect to social inclusion and sustainable economical development.
After a few years from the launching of the Bologna Process, it has produced different impacts on the different national educational systems, along with different economical and social consequences. Furthermore, the transition towards the European Knowledge Society is proceeding at quite a different pace among the participant countries partly in response to the diverse degrees in which knowledge-based activities are present in the national economies and the importance concede to knowledge as a long-run growth factor.
The transformation of the labour markets has deepened inequalities, between least skilled workers and high-skilled ones. This creates new social risks and calls for proactive strategies also by Higher Education Institutions. To face contemporary challenges, contribute to social cohesion and sustainable economical development, EU higher education institutions must further engage as active agents in the creation of the future society. Curricular adaptations, lifelong learning, assistance in the transition of the education system from education to learning, provision of equal opportunities for all, are all relevant and challenging tasks which definitely are part of the contemporary role of EU Universities.

Editors: Karsten Krüger & Erik de Gier
Year: 2011
Abstract: One of the European Union’s major concerns is its ageing population, and the need to develop a social and economic strategy able to meet this demographic challenge. One of the key issues is the care for elderly and dependent people. This question goes to the core of the European Social Protection system. But it is difficult to define exactly what care and care services for dependent people means. Traditionally a distinction has been made between health care and social care. For several reasons, these boundaries are blurred and a more integrated perspective comes up advocating the concept of long-term care, defined by the OECD as “the organisation and delivery of a broad range of services and assistance to people who are limited in their ability to function independently on a daily basis over an extended period of time”.
Long-term care systems are characterised by the diversity of the providers, of the institutional and organisational settings, and of the sources of funding. With regard to social care, the EUROFOUND made a rough distinction between waged carers and non-waged carers.
Only this distinction indicates yet that long-term care systems have complex configurations, combining different types of formal care with a wide range of informal care.
The long-term care systems of the EU-member states are under pressure from four quarters:
a) The improvement in the health of European populations has increased life expectancy. The over 65-year and the over-85 age groups have grown considerably in recent decades and will continue to do so in the future. Inevitably, this raised and will raise the demand for care for older people.
b) The family structure has changed all over Europe, towards a model characterised by smaller double breadwinner families. And as female members have traditionally taken responsibility for family care, the growing incorporation of women in the labour market increases the demand for formal carers.
c) The EU population in working age is decreasing, thus raising competition for labour between different economic sectors. This can be mitigated, but not resolved, by immigration. But low paid work and low labour status combined with high responsibilities make the care work not very attractive.
d) The retrenchment of the welfare state since the 1990s and the increasing public budget restrictions in EU-member states have made the funding of high quality national care systems even more difficult.
The multiple demographic changes exert pressure on the care service sector to respond to the increasing demand for professionalised care services. There is a lack of qualified labour to satisfy this demand, and there are strong public budget restrictions as well.
The problem of providing high quality care service is related on the one hand to the increase in the demand for care, and on the other to the labour shortage. But at the same time, long-term care is one of the sectors in which the most employment is created.
This book brings together articles by authors from four European countries (Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain) which reflect trends in the search for new combinations between institutional, family and community agents to provide high quality long-term care services. The articles also show the diversity of the national landscapes of care services as well as the variety of possible solutions.

NESOR (“NEw SOcial Risks and the role of universities”), a research project funded by the EU Socrates Programme, has undertaken some 150 interviews with HE experts and University managers, has produced some 20 national reports and 4 transnational reports, has held some 10 focus groups and national conferences, and has organised 3 international conferences with internal and external speakers. Moreover, it has assembled a (non-academic, policyrelevant) book which explores the issues at stake from an institutional point of view.

Concrete recommendations for action are formulated at the end of this Brief, on the basis of evidence collected. They cover these aspects of universities: structure, role in society, major functions, type of access, major actors, major clients, type of governance, and mode of teaching; and they are directed to decision-makers (i.e. managers and board members of the universities, university strategists, policy-makers, and politicians – and not least all those stakeholders who hold an opinion or have a say on the role of universities) at the levels of the European Union, the national state – and as well at the very institutions of HE. This rich body of experience from practice allows for a distilling of relevant experience from unsuccessful and successful action by university management, in front of the new challenges arising from the Lisbon Agenda, the Bologna Process, and other reform processes at international, national and institutional level.

Editores: Bernd Baumgartl, Jochen Fried, Anna Glass

La serie de publicaciones navreme | recoge experiencias derivadas de tareas, seminarios, proyectos e informes de navreme y sus socios en toda Europa. El volumen 7 de esta serie de publicaciones presenta los resultados de algunos de los trabajos recientes de navreme en los ámbitos de la enseñanza superior, la evaluación y la gestión de proyectos. Admitimos (con bastante inmodestia) que consideramos que muchos de los resultados de este trabajo merecen ser compartidos con un público más amplio; por ello, el Volumen 7 se ha dividido en dos partes: la primera trata (7a) de algunas de las “grandes cuestiones” que ocupan un lugar destacado en la agenda de casi cualquier debate político sobre la enseñanza superior en Europa y en otros lugares: garantía de calidad, modelos de gobernanza, la aparición de un sector privado en crecimiento, tendencias demográficas, alternativas al paradigma tradicional de la universidad y, por último, pero no por ello menos importante, escenarios para el futuro. Este primer volumen presenta los hitos de la enseñanza superior identificados por los miembros de la red navreme y los participantes en la sesión del Seminario de Salzburgo sobre “Más allá de la Universidad: Shifting Demographics in Higher Education” (noviembre de 2006).