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Social
Protection for a Post-industrial World
The 15th annual International
Research Seminar on Issues in Social Security organised by FISS will take place
at the Sigtunahöjden Conference Centre in Sigtuna, near Stockholm, Sweden, on 13
-15 June 2008.
The changes that have accompanied
the transition to post-industrial society have undermined many aspects of the
social and economic foundations on which post-war social security systems were
based.
These changes include the decline
of the male breadwinner family, the shift from manufacturing to service
employment, high levels of unemployment and economic inactivity, increased
female labour force participation, growth in part-time and flexible
(‘precarious’) employment, high levels of immigration, and increased income
inequality and poverty.
These trends have had important
implications for the income risks that have traditionally been protected by
social security (such as unemployment, sickness and invalidity, child poverty
and retirement); and (it has been argued) created new income or social risks
that are less well protected. This has in turn also raised important questions
about the ways in which social security is provided.
The seminar will examine the
transformations in income risks that have occurred in recent years. How and why
have these risks changed? Which groups are most vulnerable to income risks in
the modern world and what is the scale of that vulnerability? Just how new are
‘new social risks’? Conversely, is social protection too easily available for
some social risks?
This seminar will also consider
the ways in which social security has been reformed, or needs to be reformed,
to provide adequate protection against these new or transformed risks. Is
social insurance an increasingly outmoded concept or can it be reformed to take
into account ‘non-standard’ patterns of employment? Are tax credits the most
appropriate way to help the working poor? Is it realistic to expect disability
insurance recipients or lone parents with very young children to look for work?
Papers
are invited on any aspect of the general theme of the seminar. They should be
based on research or scholarship and written with an international audience in
mind. Papers that are international in perspective or based on
comparative research are especially welcome.
It
is anticipated that a selection of the papers will be included in an edited
volume within the FISS book series ‘International Studies on Social Security’.
Those wishing to present a paper
should submit by email attachment a title and an abstract (of less than
500 words) in English before 12 January 2008 to the FISS
Secretariat at: [log in to unmask].
The file should have the lead author’s surname in the title (e.g.
Kemp_FISS_2008).
Those who have submitted an
abstract will be informed by 31 January 2008 whether their paper has
been accepted and be given detailed formatting instructions. The full papers,
which should be written in English, should be submitted to the FISS Secretariat
at the University of Oxford no later than 15 May 2008, for distribution
to the discussants and participants.
Papers should be accessible to an
audience from different disciplines and be less than 8,000 words including
tables & references.
FISS is able to offer a Han Emanuel
Scholarship – covering registration fee, accommodation and reasonable travel
costs – to one full-time PhD student presenting a paper at the seminar. More
details are available from the Secretariat.
-----------------------------
Peter A. Kemp
FISS General-Secretary
Department of Social Policy and Social Work
University of Oxford
32 Wellington Square
Oxford OX1 2ER, UK
Email: [log in to unmask]