Call for Papers

The 16th 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 16-18 June 2009.

The OECD, European Union, ILO and World Bank have all recently published reports on income inequality. Although their findings vary, it seems that many developed economies have experienced growing income inequality and increasing relative poverty in recent decades. Overall, the risk of poverty has shifted from the elderly towards youth. The extent to which social security lowers poverty rates varies significantly between countries. But lower social transfers to households at the bottom of the income distribution have been one important factor behind the increase in poverty rates in many countries, a development that has particularly affected the unemployed, the sick and the disabled. Meanwhile, income inequality has also been increasing rapidly in many developing economies.

Keynote speakers:

· Bea Cantillon (University of Antwerp)

· Jonathan Bradshaw (University of York)

· Michael Förster (OECD)

· Peter Saunders (University of New South Wales)

· Timothy Smeeding (University of Wisconsin - Madison)

· Peter Townsend (London School of Economics)

The seminar will examine the relationship between recent trends in poverty and social security in advanced economies as well as in developing countries. The role of income transfers in preventing, or providing protection against, growing poverty and exclusion will be examined. The seminar will also assess the role of paid employment in helping to lift households out of poverty and in preventing social exclusion.

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 (less than 500 words) in English before 12 January 2009 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_2009).

Those who have submitted an abstract will be informed by 30 January 2009 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 2009, for distribution to the discussants and participants.