European types of political and territorial organisation of social services of general interest

Abstract

It is commonly understood across Europe that the provision of Social Services of General Interest (SSGI) is important. Several official documents guarantee every EU citizen access to, and the availability of, SSGI. Nevertheless, when it comes to producing, financing, administrating and territorially organising SSGI, the approaches and practices used across the various European states differ significantly while often mirroring the functioning of the social welfare and national administrative planning systems that prevail on the ground. The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic analysis of how European states (the EU 27 plus Croatia and the EFTA countries of Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) cope with the organisation of SSGI in the fields of education, care, labour market, social housing and insurance schemes. Outlining the similarities and differences of the various national approaches leads to the creation of a European typology of SSGI organisation. This typology will then be compared to existing typologies and classifications of social welfare and spatial planning systems. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion