Kurzbeschreibung
At the heart of Europe, in the city of Luxembourg, we are currently examining the topic of work, employment and unemployment within the context of social justice from a capabilities perspective. With their ideal of a freedom to work for all, the authors working with the Capability Approach are presenting strong demands to implement an employment policy that bases social justice on the principle of granting every citizen the opportunity to participate in collective production processes. However, their outlook goes beyond that of previous discussions focussing merely on employability. The issue of social justice, especially in the context of the growing problem of unemployment, is one of the main challenges for the future of Europe. Facing this challenge requires strong efforts not only in the field of politics but also in the field of science. This is why scientists all over Europe are uniting in their efforts to find answers to the main questions raised in the context of social justice and the pursuit of equal opportunities. These questions involve, for example, gathering empirical knowledge about the distribution of individual opportunities for European citizens and specifying which norms und indicators help to identify circumstances that may be considered fair and just. In this context, the Capability Approach delivers a clear view on what defines a good human life and on what politics has to do to ensure that every citizen has the opportunity to live a good life. Furthermore, the Capability Approach provides a successful normative framework for evaluating the current state of development in European social policies. This new publication pursues two main goals: On the one hand, it takes the example of the concept of employability formulated in the Lisbon Strategy to point out the limitations of the European employment policy. On the other hand, it uses the capability approach to discuss viable perspectives for overcoming the fragmented employment biographies that take such a predominant role in the common concepts of employability. This is what makes this book so important: it could provide a new impetus to the employment debate in Luxembourg as well as opening up a very necessary research field in the humanities, the social sciences and economics to a broad European public.
Über den Autor
Klaus Schneider: Educationalist, Director of Vocational Training and Capabilities Assessment Schläifmillen (Inter-Actions). Founder of the European Anti Poverty Network Luxembourg. Editor FORWARD Series. Hans-Uwe Otto: Dr., Dr. h.c. mult., Senior Research Professor of Social Work at University Bielefeld. Director of the International Research School Education and Capabilities and Director of the Bielefeld Center for Education and Capability Research. Jean-Michel Bonvin: Dr., Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland. Member of the Management Committee of the CAPRIGHT Project funded by the EU 6th Framework Programme. Hartley Dean: Dr., Reader at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Jean-Claude Juncker: Prime Minister of Luxembourg Franz Josef Krafeld: Dr., Professor of Educational Science at the Centre of Social Counselling and Education at Bremen University of Applied Sciences. Martha C. Nussbaum: Dr., Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at University of Chicago. Member of the Committee on Southern Asian Studies. Board Member of the Human Rights Program. Founder and Coordinator of the Center for Comparative Constitutionalism. Franz Schultheis: Dr., Professor of Sociology at University St. Gallen. Member of the Swiss National Research Council and the Swiss Science and Technology Council (SSTC) and president of the Pierre Bourdieu Foundation. Holger Ziegler: Dr., Professor of Social Work at University Bielefeld.