A chance for a social future
Can the Conference on the Future of Europe be a turning point from a mere economic union to one of social rights?
Society
Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher driven by the core values of freedom, sustainability, and equality. These principles guide our exploration of society’s most pressing challenges. This archive page curates Social Europe articles focused on societal issues, offering a rich resource for innovative thinking and informed debate.
The power of civil society in a post-pandemic world
A vibrant civil society is essential to the foundations of democracy—a lesson especially important when those seem under siege.
Is Europe socially fit for the ‘Fit for 55’ package?
The centrality of market mechanisms to the European Commission’s climate package poses big questions as to its effectiveness and distributional impact.
How to prevent a mental-health pandemic
The huge toll of Covid-19 on mental health highlights the need for public investment to tackle the vast reservoir of distress.
Lessons learnt from the pandemic for long-term care
After privatisation and austerity, long-term care needs to be restored to resilience and readiness for an ageing population.
Pushed over the cliff-edge
Kate Pickett argues the pandemic has not only massively affected public health but compounded the unhealthy effects of years of job insecurity.
International Public Service Day—a day of celebration, action and resistance
Strong public administrations and well-funded public services are needed to ‘build back better’ after the pandemic.
Public services and the common good
In these authoritarian times, defending and re-empowering public services is also defending democracy.
Child Guarantee—for most, but not all
The adoption of the European Child Guarantee is a big step forward. It will take another, however, to end institutional care.
A Europe free of elder abuse
The European Commission’s Green Paper on Ageing has a blindspot—elder abuse.
Pollution: no acceptable levels
‘Zero pollution’ is a very good goal for the European Union to adopt—but only if zero means zero.
A first tango in Glasgow?
A new transatlantic relationship is critical to any hope of global realisation of the goals of the Paris agreement.
People v Shell: from ‘corporate social responsibility’ to legal accountability
The successful action by citizens and NGOs in a Dutch court against Shell has sent a frisson through corporate boardrooms—with reason.
‘Danger money’ bungs will not quell labour unrest in health and social care
The concerns of health and care workers go well beyond the pandemic and pay, touching on their human dignity.
Workplace, public space: workers organising in the age of facial recognition
‘Surveillance capitalism’ is increasingly threatening workers’ collective action and the human right to public protest.
Can rental intermediation improve the right to housing in France?
‘Housing first’ has become good practice in ending homelessness, in various European countries, especially for those with complex needs.