The Future of European Social Citizenship

ended

EUSOCIALCIT will provide scientific analysis and examine policy scenarios to strengthen European social citizenship. It focuses on three domains that mirror the building blocks of the European Pillar of Social Rights (the empowerment of citizens, fair working conditions and social inclusion) and pursues five objectives: 1. Bring together long-standing rival approaches to European social citizenship, and develop a resource-based, multi-level concept of social rights (recognizing that the resources supporting social rights can be located at EU, national and local levels). 2. Understand the current state of social rights and their relationship to outcomes (social and gender inequality, poverty and precariousness). 3. Diagnose the shortcomings of the institutions that generate undesirable outcomes. 4. Understand attitudes, preferences and the demand for change among citizens, and the constraints and opportunities these create for the EU social agenda. 5. Develop alternative policy scenarios to strengthen European social rights, in particular to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights. This promises a more encompassing understanding of European social citizenship than existing literature now offers. We will provide new indicators and implementation studies on social investment, working conditions, minimum income protection and housing. The project is deliberately ambitious in terms of both science and policy because effective policies require in-depth analysis of current realities and alternative policy options, both empirically and conceptually. The consortium has been formed to realise that ambition, by combining academic expertise – in political science, law, sociology, social policy and economics – with practical policy experience. Our emphasis on the plurality of possible policy scenarios, on listening to citizens and co-creation testifies to our conviction that an academic and policy-oriented research project should serve the public debate, not replace it.