social quality bridging asia and europe 2009

The Social Quality Approach: Bridging Asia and Europe* ALAN WALKER | University of Sheffield This paper sets out to achieve three aims. First of all it provides a basic introduction to the concept of social quality. This includes an outline of its architecture- constitutional, conditional and normative factors — and of the four key impulses that led to its development: ontological, methodological, sociological and normative. Then, secondly, it compares the East Asian and European social models. Although such summary accounts risk over-simplification, this section is critical to gain a broad understanding of the similarities and differences and prepare for the third and final part. Thus the third aim is to begin a discussion of how the European social quality approach might be applied to East Asia. The paper does so by working through the social quality architecture outlined earlier. The paper ends with a discussion of the role of political ideology in shaping stereotypes about Asia and Europe. Keywords: Social Quality, Europe, East Asia, Social Models, Social Policy *Originated as a key note lecture to the conference ‘Social Quality in Asia and Europe: Searching for Ways to Promote Social Cohesion and Social Empowerment’, Nanjing University, China, 24th October, 2008. DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIETY Volume 38 | Number 2 | December 2009, 209-235 ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Introduction This article introduces the concept of social quality and examines the extent of its applicability to Asian societies. This is an important issue because the concept was developed in Western Europe and the idea that it might be applied to other regions arose only subsequently. The article starts with an outline of the current state of play with regard to social quality theory: the concept is an organic one and still in development. It can, in other words, adapt in certain methodological respects, to the increasing dialogue with Asian scholars. Then, it is important for its application in an Asian context, to be clear about the key factors that lay behind the birth of social quality and the European circumstances surrounding it. Next a contrast is made between the social models of Asia (specifically China and East Asia) and Europe (specifically Western Europe) in order to understand the differing contexts of social quality application. The idea of the welfare society, as a socio-political construct, is used to emphasise the contrast. Finally the article examines the potential for social quality to contribute to social policy and social development in China and East Asia and identifies the key points for research. The Meaning of Social Quality The essence of the idea of social quality is the social nature of human beings. This is reflected in the definition: the extent to which people are able to participate in the social, economic and cultural life of their communities under conditions which enhance their well- being and individual potential (Beck, Maesen v.d. and Walker, 1997: 6-7). Although the definition emphasises individual well-being and potential it also indicates that these are derived from social engagement or participation (Beck et al., 2001). Thus the focus is on the extent to which the quality of social relations promotes both participation in social development and individual human growth and development. In other words, there can be no individual well-being and development without social relations. Starting from the assumption that people are essentially social beings, rather than atomized economic agents, it is argued that self-realization depends on social recognition (Honneth, 1995). In other words, a person’s self-realization is derived from their interaction with � � DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIETY Vol. 38 No. 2 December 2009 ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? others in a world of collective identities — such as families, communities, companies, institutions. Thus there is interdependency between the processes of self-realization and those of collective identify formation (Beck et al., 2001). Of course to participate in these processes people must have the capacity for self- reflection and the collective identities they interact with must be open. It is here, in these interdependent processes, that the ‘social’ is located. The field in which these interdependent processes take place is that represented by the interaction of two critical tensions: the horizontal tension between the formal world of systems and the informal life-worlds of families, groups and communities (Tonnies, 2002; Weber, 1978); and the vertical tension between societal development and biographical development (Weyman and Heinz, 1996). Three sets of factors play the key roles in the creation and evaluation of social quality (Beck et al, 1997; 2001). There are, first of all, the constitutional factors, which are the outcome of processes of self-realisation, interacting with processes concerning the formation of a diversity of collective identities across the two main tensions. These result in the constitution of competent social actors: personal (human) security, concerning the institutionalisation of the rule of law; social recognition concerning interpersonal respect between members of the community; social responsiveness concerning the openness of groups, communities and systems; and personal (human) capacity, concerning the individual’s physical and/or mental abilities. Each factor is mainly influenced by two aspects of the interaction between the two main tensions and is, therefore, situated in one part of the quadrangle of the constitutional factors (Beck et al., 2001) as shown in Diagram 1. Once competent actors are constituted, the opportunities for and The Social Quality Approach � Systems Institutions Organizations Communities Families Societal Development Biographical Development Diagram 1. Two Basic Reciprocal Tensions ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? outcomes of social quality are determined, secondly, by four conditional factors (Diagram 2). First, people have to have access to socio-economic security in order to protect them from poverty and other forms of material deprivation. In a European context socio-economic security requires good quality paid employment backed up by social protection to guarantee living standards and access to resources: income, education, health care, social services, environment, public health, personal safety and so on. It also relies on ecological security: protection from environmental hazards created, for example, by global warming. Different societies and different stages of development will witness a variety of combinations of actors — state, market, family and civil society — in the production of welfare. Second, people have to experience social inclusion in, or minimum levels of social exclusion from, key social and economic institutions such as the labour market. Social inclusion should concern citizenship. In practice, however, this may be a wide and all embracing national or European citizenship or ‘exclusive’ with large numbers of outcasts and quasi- citizens (denied citizenship completely or partially by means of discrimination) in which social inclusion cannot be achieved for many. Third, people should be able to live in communities and societies characterized by social cohesion. Social cohesion refers to the glue which holds together communities and societies. It is vital for both social development and individual self-realization. The contemporary discussion of cohesion often centers on the narrow popular concept of ‘social capital’ but its legacy stretches back, via Durkheim, to solidarity, shared norms and values. Fourth, people must be to some extent autonomous and socially empowered in order to be able to fully participate in � � DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIETY Vol. 38 No. 2 December 2009 Societal Development Personal (human) Social Security Recognition Systems ACTORS CAPABLE Communities Institutions OF SOCIAL QUALITY Families Organizations Groups Social Personal (human) Responsiveness Capacity Biographical Development Diagram 2. The Quadrangle of the Constitutional Factors ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? the face of rapid socio-economic change. Social empowerment means enabling people to control their own lives and to take advantage of opportunities. It means increasing the range of human choice. Therefore it goes far beyond participation in the political system to focus on the individual’s potential capacities (knowledge, skills, experience and so on) and how far these can be realized. It is ‘social’ because this realization is via relationships. Each factor is an outcome of processes concerning the formation of a diversity of collective identities, strongly influenced by the interplay of processes of self-realisation across two main tensions and is, therefore also situated in one part of the quadrangle of the conditional factors (Beck et al., 2001). Thirdly, a set of normative factors are used to make judgements about the appropriate or necessary degree of social quality, based on the linking of the constitutional and conditional factors at a specific place and a specific time. The normative factors are: social justice, linked to socio-economic security; solidarity, connected to social cohesion; equal value, as a criterion in relation to social inclusion; and human dignity, in relation to social empowerment. The connection of biographical development and the genesis of groups, families and communities — the interplay between actions towards self- realisation and those leading to the formation of collective identities — inevitably influences the nature of both the constitutional factors and the conditional ones. Thus, methodologically, it is feasible to examine the interplay between these processes in order to explain changes in them over time in the same way that analytical dualism assumes that structures and agents are, at least temporarily, distinguishable (Archer, 1995: 66). These dynamic interactions lead to the emergence of new relationships, social structures and, therefore, new expressions of the social. Thus the two quadrangles (Diagrams 1 and 2) are not in practice separate but mutually interact to construct the dynamic nature of the social. For example, we may hypothesise a critical relationship between personal (human) capacity at the individual level and the possibilities presented by social empowerment at the social level. An overview of the three sets of factors — the social quality architecture — shows the three dimensions and their connectivities (Diagram 3). In terms of measurement the European focus has been on the conditional factors, the hardware of social quality. This is not surprising because these represent the outcomes of the processes involved rather than measuring the processes per se. In line with welfare regime theory we hypothesise that there are different ‘social quality regimes’ depending on variations in the interactions between the constitutional and conditional factors, together with their normative context (an issue returned to later). The Social Quality Approach � � ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Key Drivers of the Social Quality Perspective To appreciate the paradigmatic change represented by the social quality concept, at least in a European context, it is essential to understand the forces driving its origin. There are four main ones: ontological, methodological, sociological and political/ethical. First, in ontological terms, the birth of social quality was a response to the dominance of individualism in both society and social science. In scientific terms a major impulse behind the development of the social quality theory is the realisation that a clear understanding of the social had vanished from social sciences with the transition from modernity to post or late modernity (Bauman, 1999). Gradually the scientific distinction between the social and the individual has become entrenched. In recent decades the latter have taken strong analytical precedence over the former. As a consequence of the societal and cultural shift to late modernity, individuals are located increasingly at the forefront of popular discourses. Contemporary Western social sciences are preoccupied with individual life styles, individual happiness, preferences, consumption, well-being and quality of life of people as autonomous individuals, rather than as individuals in groups, communities and other social relations (Bauman, 2008). According to Ferge (2001), in Central Europe this cultural and political shift has caused the individualization of the social and leads to legitimation of the decline in solidarity The necessity to rethink the idea of the social follows from the assumption � � DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIETY Vol. 38 No. 2 December 2009 Societal Development Socio-economic Social Cohesion Systems CONDITIONS FOR Communities Institutions SOCIAL QUALITY Families Organizations Groups Social Social Inclusion Empowerment Biographical Development Diagram 3. The Quadrangle of the Conditional Factors ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? that people are social being’s. What meanings should be accorded to this adjective, and how should they be translated into concrete policy templates such as ‘social justice’, ‘social protection’, ‘social security’, ‘social inclusion’, or ‘social cohesion’? Social quality analysts argue that ‘the social does not exist as such but it is the expression of the constantly changing processes by which individuals realize themselves as interacting social beings’ (Beck et al., 2001: 310). The entrenched distinction between the social and the individual is based on a false premise. In the words of Elias, individual and society are not in contradistinc- tion: to understand the obstruction which the predominant modes of thinking and feeling pose to the investigation of longer-term changes of social structure and personality structure (…) it is not enough to trace the development of the image of people as society, the image of society. It is also necessary to keep in mind the development of the image of people as individuals, the image of personality. As has been mentioned, one of the peculiarities of the traditional human self-image is that people often speak and think of individuals and societies as if these were two phenomena existing separately — of which, moreover, one is often considered ‘real’ and the other ‘unreal’ — instead of two different aspects of the same human being (Elias, 2000: 468). The social quality approach follows Elias’ rejection of the separation of individuals and society but it does not completely conflate the two. Thus, in social quality theory, the social is realised in the interplay between processes of self-realization by individuals acting as social beings and processes leading to the formation of collective identities. The duality between agency and structure is overcome by stressing dialectical relationality, as in the work of Bhaskar (1993). This position is congruent with Archer’s idea of analytical dualism which refuses to separate as well as to conflate agency and structure (Archer, 1995: 66). Second, in methodological terms, there was (and remains) the inadequacy of existing conceptual tools to provide a broad and coherent framework with which to interpret and make sense of the massive transformations taking place globally and, in particular, how they impact on people’s lives. This need is felt in many spheres yet, everywhere, there is fragmentation: in policy making between policy domains, policy makers and NGOs, policy makers and citizens; in welfare between managers, professionals, provider organisations, users and carers; and in science between myriad different disciplines. Thus there is a lack of coherent methodological tools to analyse social change and its impact on daily life. Recent years have seen a huge expansion in the statistical data available to The Social Quality Approach � � ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? policy makers and the general public in Europe, including statistical digests from Eurostat, DG Employment’s Social Situation Reports and the Quality of Life in Europe series from the European Foundation on Living and Working conditions (EFLWC, 2006). Such information is part of the life-blood of democracy, but its explosive growth has a paradoxical aspect. It tends to reinforce policy fragmentation, making it hard for policy makers to tackle problems in a holistic way and for citizens to comprehend what is happening to society. This is where the social quality approach may contribute. One of its aims is to overcome the present fragmentation of policy, for example at the EU level, between economic, educational, employment, urban and other domains. By creating a coherent, theoretically grounded, concept that embraces all policies and all stages of the policy process it is intended to furnish policy makers and the general public with an analytical tool with which to understand society and to change it (Walker and Maesen v.d., 2004). In other words, the outcomes of education policies or health care policies may be analysed with help of the same conceptual framework by asking to what extent they influence the socio-economic situation of citizens, their social cohesion, social inclusion, socio-economic security and social empowerment. These are overarching questions with which to connect the outcomes of the different policy arenas with each other as combined expressions of the social. In order to understand these expressions the approach also demands a transcendence of the existing fragmentation between fields of knowledge. Third, there was a sociological driver behind social quality. In particular, the major stimulus was the dysfunctional asymmetrical relationship between economic policy and ‘social policy’. Social policy at the national level has, traditionally, been subordinated to economic policy and dominant economic values. In the European context social policy is commonly treated as being equivalent to social administration by national states and regional and local authorities concerning income transfers for maintaining the socio-economic security of, originally, employees and later of all citizens. It concerns in fact just one aspect of the whole range of what are social policies emanating from national states, non-profit organisations, NGOs, companies and groups of citizens, oriented to the domains of socio-economic security: financial resources, housing, health and social care, work and education. The asymmetrical relationship between economic policy and this whole range of social policies has severely constrained the development of a comprehensive approach (Walker, 1984). Related to this, the separation between economics and other social sciences, following the break-up of political economy, led to the conscious development of economics in isolation from an understanding of � � DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIETY Vol. 38 No. 2 December 2009 ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? social relations (Gough, 1979). Furthermore, not only did the dominant Western economics unilaterally determine the sphere of its own compe