The International Journal of Social Quality is published by Berghahn Books in association with the European Foundation of Social Quality.

In the recent past, the needs of people have only too often been subordinated to the needs of the economy and politicians have lost sight of the fact that government's primary purpose should be to serve its citizens. The International Journal of Social Quality was conceived with the aim in mind to refocus the political and sociological debate and to provide a forum for comparative and interdisciplinary study and discussion of crucial issues affecting the quality of life in Europe and elsewhere.

The International Journal of Social Quality aims are: to explore practices and discourses on, and to raise crucial issues with regard to, social quality in contemporary societies; to engage in an ongoing debate on perceptions and expectations of social quality in different societies and in what way these are affected by factors such as religion, class, age, gender, nation, and others which are shaping individual and group identities; and to evaluate how economic policies or political decisions affect social equality, encourage research that identifies and examines policies and identify and assess policies that enhance or threaten the quality of life.

Each issue is devoted to a major theme selected from the key issues that affect contemporary societies, especially those of the evolving new stage of the European Union, and offering incisive analytical articles on ongoing debates. Moreover, each issue will present an up-to-date examination of the current debates, a bibliography, and a review article relating to the particular theme of the issue, thus providing relevant background information that can also be used as a general reference tool for researchers, policy-makers, and students.

The International Journal of Social Quality is available online.

Previous Issues

Volume 1 - Issues 1 & 2: 1999
Social Quality in Europe

• Editorial: Social Quality and the Future of the European Union
  Alan Walker
• Social Market, Social Quality, and the Quality of Social Institutions
  Ota de Leonardis
• Who is Europe for?
  Wolfgang Beck and Laurent J.G. van der Maesen
• The Impact of Economic Restructuring on Social Life: Fate or Choice?
  Jan Berting and Christiane Villain-Gandossi
• Some Conceptual and Operational Considerations on the Social Quality of Europe
  Ivan Svetlik
• Social Quality in Everyday Life: Changing European Experiences of Employment, Family and Community
  Sue Yeandle
• Social Quality - A New Concern in Hungary
  Zsuzsa Széman
• The Third Sector and the Process of Modernisation - Reflections on the Perspectives of NGOs in the Process of European Integration
  Peter Herrmann
• The Significance of Public Transfers for Absorbing Social Shock during Transformation in the New German States
  Thomas Lenk, with the assistance of Volkmar Teichmann
• Forum: On Politics and Policy of Social Quality
  Göran Therborn
• Social Quality in Europe
  Ińigo Sagardoy de Simón

Volume 2 - Issue 2: 2000
Social Quality of Employment

• Editorial
  Alan Walker
• European Employment: A New Approach to Analysing Trends Monica Threlfall
• The Social Meaning of Employment and Unemployment
  Miguel Laparra Navarro and Manuel Aguilar Hendrickson
• Regulating Labour: Employment Policy in Europe
  Ton Korver
• The Role of Organising Labour in De-Industrialising Economies
  Anke Hassel
• Being Young in Italy: The Paradoxes of a Familistic Society
  Chiara Saraceno
• Forum: The Logic of Enlargement: The European Union and the Expansion of the Sphere of European Interests
  Georg Vobruba
• Social Quality: A New Vision for Europe
  Laurent J.G. van der Maesen

Volume 3 - Issue 1 & 2: 2001
Citizenship and Welfare Protection

• Editorial
  François Nectoux
• European Integration and the Reform of Social Security in the Accession Countries
  Zsuzsa Ferge
• Community Citizenship and Community Social Quality: The British Jewish Community at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
  David Phillips
• Social Quality as a Tool for Policy Analysis: The Place of Children in Family Policy
  Yitzhak Berman
• EMU and the Social Environment
  Lei Delsen
• Quality in the Balance: On the Adaptive and Mimetic Nature of Subjective Well-being
  Thierry Kochuyt
• Reconceptualisation of Social Quality
  Anne Fairwheather, Borut Roncevic, Maj Rydbjerg, Marie Valentova, Mocja Zajc
• Review - Social Quality: A Vision for Europe
  Heiner Ganssmann
• Review - Some Preliminary Considerations about Social Cohesion and Social Quality
  Laurent J.G. van der Maesen

Volume 4 - Issue 1 & 2: 2003
Flexibility and Security in Employment

• Editorial - From Unemployment to Flexicurity - Opportunities and Issues for Social Quality in the World of Work in Europe
  François Nectoux and Laurent van der Maesen
• Social Quality, Employment and its Flexicurity
  Laurent van der Maesen
• Flexible and Secure: Adaptability and the Employment Relationship
  Joint Report Team
• Working Time and Time for Care in Europe
  Joint Report Team
• Social Quality and the Policy Domain of Employment in Belgium
  Jozef Pacolet and An Marchal
• Social Quality and the Policy Domain of Employment in Finland
  Pekka Kosonen and Jukka Vänskä
• Social Quality and the Policy Domain of Employment in Hungary
  Erzsébet Bukodi and Péter Róbert
• Social Quality and the Policy Domain of Employment in the Netherlands
  Ton Korver
• Social Quality and the Policy Domain of Employment in Portugal
  Heloísa M. Perista and Pedro Perista
• Review - A Review of A. van Bruggen's Individual Production of Social Well-Being
  Jan Berting

Subjects: Political Science, European Studies, Policy Making