Social Rights, Integration and Welfare Practices - Individual and Collective Perspectives

Against the background of currents trends in Europe the aim of the package is to study changes in welfare- and integration policies in Scandinavia in relation to religious and ethnic organizations (policy of civic assimilation instead of policy of multiculturalism, ongoing privatization of welfare services, Europeanisation in decision-making processes, increasing local diversity in welfare provision, increased emphasis on freedom of choice concerning welfare services). The concept of bonding and bridging social capital will be used to analyse the welfare contributions of religious and ethnic organisations and the state’s response to them.

The aim includes also providing a legal perspective on how to merge individual and collective social rights in the pluralistic law (e.g. the impact of non discrimination in the European Union on social rights and the Swedish welfare state).

Two joint articles are forthcoming: one that analyzes how religious symbols such as the veil are handled in Swedish schools, and one article on interdisciplinary cooperation.

Participating researchers: Karin Borevi, Anna-Sara Lind, Annette Leis-Peters