Poverty and social integration in the enlarged Europe

Empirical studies of the old EU countries suggest that poverty brings limited social relations and a lack of social support in its wake. At the same time, it is thought that in the transition countries, especially, individual supply crises are compensated for by a composite and stable network of social relations as well as a tradition of solidarity as a dominant value. This paper looks at the ways in which cultures of support vary across the enlarged Europe and to this end examines the link between poverty and social disintegration in countries characterised by different economic, cultural and welfare state regimes. The empirical analysis is concerned with (1) the distribution of social integration across the enlarged Europe, and (2) the verification of the hypothesis of accumulation and compensation in the individual countries. An additional step seeks to identify (3) the reasons for the variation across countries in the relationship between poverty and social disintegration. This macro-sociological perspective examines context effects that allow conclusions to be drawn regarding two hypotheses, in particular that of stigmatisation and that of crowding out. Is poverty, which only affects a minority of the population in countries with a generally high standard of living, closely associated with stigmatisation, and does it lead to social withdrawal? Does a precarious system of social protection increase private solidarity and is support potential reduced in an environment of universal risk insurance? Within this same context, the paper also looks for evidence of (4) greater recourse to family support in precarious life situations. The data on which the study is based is taken from the European Quality of Life Survey a representative survey of living conditions and quality of life in Europe that was carried out in October 2003. --

Nothing left to lose? Poverty and social exclusion in comparison. Empirical evidence on Germany

The assumption that today.s society is polarised, is a very popular one in the current public and scientific debate. Access to the labour market is referred to as the main characteristic, which decides whether someone is .inside. or .outside.. Lots of theoretical and conceptual efforts have been undertaken to establish dimensions and characteristics of social exclusion, addressing processes of denied participation . socially, economically, politically or culturally. Nevertheless, poverty and social exclusion as two descriptions of severe social inequality have often been mixed up, and hypothesis about their interrelation and characteristics have hardly been tested empirically. Is poverty the first stage on the way .out of society., or are there considerable differences between the risk of becoming poor or socially excluded? In this contribution I propose the conceptualization and operationalization of social exclusion tendencies on the basis of the German Welfare Survey 1998. First of all, the multidimensionality of social exclusion is analysed to gain an insight into its structure. Of particular interest is the question how cumulative social disadvantages show their effect on perceived social exclusion in the view of the respondents. Furthermore, I concentrate on the relationship between poverty and social exclusion and compare the determinants of becoming poor and socially excluded. -- Die Annahme, daß sich die Gesellschaft polarisiere, ist gegenwärtig in der öffentlichen Diskussion und politischen Debatte sehr populär. Der Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt, so eine Hauptthese der deutschen Debatte um soziale Ausgrenzung, bestimme wesentlich darüber, ob jemand .drinnen. oder .draußen. sei. Soziale Ausgrenzung zielt auf die nicht mehr gewährleistete Teilhabe in vielfältiger Hinsicht: sozial, ökonomisch, politisch und kulturell. Armut und soziale Ausgrenzung als zwei Beschreibungen extremer sozialer Ungleichheit werden dabei oft vermischt, ohne dass Hypothesen über ihre Verbindung und ihre spezifischen Charakteristika empirisch überprüft worden wären. Führt existentieller Geldmangel unabdingbar zu einer Gefährdung sozialer Integration? Oder lassen sich wesentliche Unterschiede zwischen dem Armuts- und dem Ausgrenzungsrisiko ausmachen? In diesem Beitrag wird mit Hilfe von Daten des Wohlfahrtssurveys 1998 eine Konzeptionalisierung und Operationalisierung sozialer Ausgrenzungstendenzen vorgeschlagen. Von Interesse ist zum einen die Struktur und das Ausmaß kumulativer sozialer Benachteiligung. Darüber hinaus wird analysiert, ob prekäre Lebenslagen mit subjektivem Ausgrenzungsempfinden einhergehen und welche Voraussetzungen sozialstruktureller Art gegeben sein müssen, um von Armut oder sozialer Ausgrenzung bedroht zu sein.

Policy or privacy - what matters most for individual well-being? Determinants of life satisfaction in the enlarged Europe

Life satisfaction is quite heterogeneously distributed across countries of the enlarged European Union. Previous research has shown how living conditions within individual countries, such as access to material and emotional resources, are important for personal well-being, but it has neglected to explain differences between countries. This article investigates whether it also matters in which political, economic, and social circumstances people live, as well as whether their particular perception of the quality of their societal environment plays a role. People are well aware that the institutional and cultural settings in which their lives are embedded create opportunities and limitations: within individual countries, perceptions of society influence life satisfaction outcomes irrespective of access to resources. However, their importance for well-being differs across Europe: perceptions of society and material resources are highly decisive in countries which provide only a minimum of social security and in which the reliability of political institutions is poor. In rich and stable countries, the impact is weaker and private social support becomes more important. In addition to these country-specific weights of life satisfaction determinants, life satisfaction variations between countries can be explained to a large extent by taking into consideration the economic performance, the social security level, and the political culture in a country all in all, general conditions that enable people to live a respectable life. --

Reporting on social exclusion: standard of living and social participation in Hungary, Spain, and Germany

The issue of social exclusion, currently of particular concern to policy makers in Brussels, is a manifestation of new aspects of social inequality that are supposed to go along with persistent high unemployment rates and increasing poverty affection. The concept provides a multidimensional and dynamic perspective of the resultant weakened possibilities to participate in social life. The growing acceptance of the term, however, has not been accompanied by a consensus regarding who exactly belong under its rubric nor how this could be verified empirically. This contribution makes an effort to cut down the broad meaning of social exclusion in order to propose dimensions and indicators for measurement and monitoring purposes. With the help of actual data from the Euromodule, a representative survey instrument for European welfare comparison, the interplay between standard of living and social participation is analysed in Hungary, Spain, and Germany. The three countries represent different European regions and varying types of welfare and social protection policies. Decisive factors influencing vulnerability to exclusion include relative perceptions of deprivation, the general level of welfare in a country as well as access to support from social networks. -- Prozesse sozialer Ausgrenzung spielen gegenwärtig im europäischen sozialpolitischen Diskurs eine bedeutende Rolle, betont werden neue Aspekte sozialer Ungleichheit, die man insbesondere mit anhaltender Langzeitarbeitslosigkeit und wachsender Armut in Verbindung bringt. Das Exklusionskonzept bietet einen mehrdimensionalen und dynamischen Zugang zur umfassenden Analyse gesellschaftlicher Teilhabe. Trotz der großen Akzeptanz der Ausgrenzungsterminologie steht ein Konsens über Definitionen und empirische Messung bislang aus. In diesem Beitrag werden Dimensionen und Indikatoren zur Messung und Dokumentation von Ausgrenzungsprozessen vorgeschlagen. Mit Hilfe von Euromodule-Daten, einer repräsentativen Bevölkerungsumfrage für europäische Wohlfahrtsvergleiche, wird das Zusammenspiel von materiellem Lebensstandard und sozialer Teilhabe in Ungarn, Spanien und Deutschland analysiert. Die drei Länder unterscheiden sich in ihren sozialen Sicherungssystemen ebenso wie in ihrem Wohlfahrtsniveau. Vergleichsprozesse und Unterstützung durch soziale Netzwerke sind zwei wichtige Faktoren, die das Risiko sozialer Ausgrenzung wesentlich beeinflussen.

Poverty in a multidimensional perspective: Great Britain and Germany in comparison

This paper deals with the issue of poverty in a comparative and multidimensional perspective. Based on Townsend’s concept of relative deprivation, we analyse what people can afford compared to their perceived necessities for decent living. We will analyse definitions of living standard and social deprivation within two European countries which provide sufficient data and differ in their institutional settings: Britain and Germany. The assumption is that different welfare regimes and different social policies will bring about dissimilar deprivation risks. In addition, the concept of deprivation is combined with income poverty to focus on those who are affected by both shortages, low income and a low standard of living. With a multivariate analysis deprivation risks other than income are examined. Indicators of subjective well-being show the effect different poverty levels have on people’s satisfaction in several life domains. The results underline the importance of taking into account different poverty aspects; standard of living turns out to be the main factor to explain overall life satisfaction and can well be seen as the core of multidimensional poverty research. -- Das vorliegende Arbeitspapier versteht sich als Beitrag zu einer Armutsforschung in mehrdimensionaler und komparativer Perspektive. Auf der Grundlage von Townsends Konzept der Relativen Deprivation werden Vorstellungen von einem angemessenen Lebensstandard in Großbritannien und Deutschland analysiert und den tatsächlich realisierten Lebensbedingungen gegenübergestellt. Es wird untersucht, ob sich unterschiedliche Wohlfahrtsregime und sozialpolitische Regelungen in ungleichen Deprivationsrisiken niederschlagen. Durch die Kombination des Deprivationsansatzes mit Einkommensarmut können verschiedene Armutslagen herausgestellt werden, die auf unterschiedliche Art und Weise Benachteiligung bedeuten. Mit Hilfe eines multivariaten Analyseverfahrens wird untersucht, welchen Einfluß andere Faktoren als Einkommen auf das Deprivationsrisiko ausüben. Indikatoren des subjektiven Wohlbefindens zeigen, daß die verschiedenen Armutsaspekte mehr als eine methodische Differenzierung darstellen: Niedriger Lebensstandard und niedriges Einkommen in Kombination haben erhebliche Zufriedenheitseinbußen in verschiedenen Lebensbereichen zur Folge. Die Ergebnisse unterstreichen die Relevanz, Armutsanalysen nicht nur auf Einkommen zu beschränken. Im Hinblick auf die allgemeine Lebenszufriedenheit haben Lebensstandard-Indikatoren eine hohe Erklärungskraft und können als wichtige Dimension einer multidimensionalen Armutsforschung angesehen werden.

Well-being and inequality

An objective and a subjective approach to study well-being is introduced. The objective approach is particularly useful to compare the quality of life of given societies across time and space. Using the objective approach, we can identify strong differences of quality of life between European countries. In comparison to Western Europe, East European countries tend to have a rather low quality of life. Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium form a cluster of countries with high quality of life. The subjective approach to study well-being is useful for investigating the importance of dimensions of social inequality for people themselves. It is shown that most of the inequality dimensions traditionally analysed by social scientists affect peoples subjective well-being. However, it is also shown that some of the more materialistic inequality dimensions (such as income) tend to be less important in rich societies, while certain non-materialistic dimensions (such as family) are getting more important. The subjective approach to study well-being is also used to investigate the importance of characteristics of societies for peoples well-being. --

Poverty and social integration in the enlarged Europe

"Empirical studies of the 'old EU' countries suggest that poverty brings limited social relations and a lack of social support in its wake. At the same time, it is thought that in the transition countries, especially, individual supply crises are compensated for by a composite and stable network of social relations as well as a tradition of solidarity as a dominant value. This paper looks at the ways in which cultures of support vary across the enlarged Europe and to this end examines the link between poverty and social disintegration in countries characterised by different economic, cultural and welfare state regimes. The empirical analysis is concerned with (1) the distribution of social integration across the enlarged Europe, and (2) the verification of the hypothesis of accumulation and compensation in the individual countries. An additional step seeks to identify (3) the reasons for the variation across countries in the relationship between poverty and social disintegration. This macro-sociological perspective examines context effects that allow conclusions to be drawn regarding two hypotheses, in particular - that of stigmatisation and that of crowding out. Is poverty, which only affects a minority of the population in countries with a generally high standard of living, closely associated with stigmatisation, and does it lead to social withdrawal? Does a precarious system of social protection increase private solidarity and is support potential reduced in an environment of universal risk insurance? Within this same context, the paper also looks for evidence of (4) greater recourse to family support in precarious life situations. The data on which the study is based is taken from the European Quality of Life Survey - a representative survey of living conditions and quality of life in Europe that was carried out in October 2003." (author's abstract

Nothing left to loose? Poverty and social exclusion in comparison ; empirical evidence on Germany

"The assumption that today's society is polarised, is a very popular one in the current public and scientific debate. Access to the labour market is referred to as the main characteristic, which decides whether someone is 'inside' or 'outside'. Lots of theoretical and conceptual efforts have been undertaken to establish dimensions and characteristics of social exclusion, addressing processes of denied participation - socially, economically, politically or culturally. Nevertheless, poverty and social exclusion as two descriptions of severe social inequality have often been mixed up, and hypothesis about their interrelation and characteristics have hardly been tested empirically. Is poverty the first stage on the way 'out of society', or are there considerable differences between the risk of becoming poor or socially excluded? In this contribution I propose the conceptualization and operationalization of social exclusion tendencies on the basis of the German Welfare Survey 1998. First of all, the multidimensionality of social exclusion is analysed to gain an insight into its structure. Of particular interest is the question how cumulative social disadvantages show their effect on perceived social exclusion in the view of the respondents. Furthermore, I concentrate on the relationship between poverty and social exclusion and compare the determinants of becoming poor and socially excluded." (author's abstract)"Die Annahme, daß sich die Gesellschaft polarisiere, ist gegenwärtig in der öffentlichen Diskussion und politischen Debatte sehr populär. Der Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt, so eine Hauptthese der deutschen Debatte um soziale Ausgrenzung, bestimme wesentlich darüber, ob jemand 'drinnen' oder 'draußen' sei. Soziale Ausgrenzung zielt auf die nicht mehr gewährleistete Teilhabe in vielfältiger Hinsicht: sozial, ökonomisch, politisch und kulturell. Armut und soziale Ausgrenzung als zwei Beschreibungen extremer sozialer Ungleichheit werden dabei oft vermischt, ohne dass Hypothesen über ihre Verbindung und ihre spezifischen Charakteristika empirisch überprüft worden wären. Führt existentieller Geldmangel unabdingbar zu einer Gefährdung sozialer Integration? Oder lassen sich wesentliche Unterschiede zwischen dem Armuts- und dem Ausgrenzungsrisiko ausmachen? In diesem Beitrag wird mit Hilfe von Daten des Wohlfahrtssurveys 1998 eine Konzeptionalisierung und Operationalisierung sozialer Ausgrenzungstendenzen vorgeschlagen. Von Interesse ist zum einen die Struktur und das Ausmaß kumulativer sozialer Benachteiligung. Darüber hinaus wird analysiert, ob prekäre Lebenslagen mit subjektivem Ausgrenzungsempfinden einhergehen und welche Voraussetzungen sozialstruktureller Art gegeben sein müssen, um von Armut oder sozialer Ausgrenzung bedroht zu sein." (Autorenreferat

Policy or privacy - what matters most for individual well-being? Determinants of life satisfactions in the enlarged Europe

"Life satisfaction is quite heterogeneously distributed across countries of the enlarged European Union. Previous research has shown how living conditions within individual countries, such as access to material and emotional resources, are important for personal well-being, but it has neglected to explain differences between countries. This article investigates whether it also matters in which political, economic, and social circumstances people live, as well as whether their particular perception of the quality of their societal environment plays a role. People are well aware that the institutional and cultural settings in which their lives are embedded create opportunities and limitations: within individual countries, perceptions of society influence life satisfaction outcomes irrespective of access to resources. However, their importance for well-being differs across Europe: perceptions of society and material resources are highly decisive in countries which provide only a minimum of social security and in which the reliability of political institutions is poor. In rich and stable countries, the impact is weaker and private social support becomes more important. In addition to these country-specific weights of life satisfaction determinants, life satisfaction variations between countries can be explained to a large extent by taking into consideration the economic performance, the social security level, and the political culture in a country - all in all, general conditions that enable people to live a respectable life." (author's abstract

Reporting on social exclusion: standard of living and social participation in Hungary, Spain, and Germany

"The issue of social exclusion, currently of particular concern to policy makers in Brussels, is a manifestation of new aspects of social inequality that are supposed to go along with persistent high unemployment rates and increasing poverty affection. The concept provides a multidimensional and dynamic perspective of the resultant weakened possibilities to participate in social life. The growing acceptance of the term, however, has not been accompanied by a consensus regarding who exactly belong under its rubric nor how this could be verified empirically. This contribution makes an effort to cut down the broad meaning of social exclusion in order to propose dimensions and indicators for measurement and monitoring purposes. With the help of actual data from the Euromodule, a representative survey instrument for European welfare comparison, the interplay between standard of living and social participation is analysed in Hungary, Spain, and Germany. The three countries represent different European regions and varying types of welfare and social protection policies. Decisive factors influencing vulnerability to exclusion include relative perceptions of deprivation, the general level of welfare in a country as well as access to support from social networks." (author's abstract)"Prozesse sozialer Ausgrenzung spielen gegenwärtig im europäischen sozialpolitischen Diskurs eine bedeutende Rolle, betont werden neue Aspekte sozialer Ungleichheit, die man insbesondere mit anhaltender Langzeitarbeitslosigkeit und wachsender Armut in Verbindung bringt. Das Exklusionskonzept bietet einen mehrdimensionalen und dynamischen Zugang zur umfassenden Analyse gesellschaftlicher Teilhabe. Trotz der großen Akzeptanz der Ausgrenzungsterminologie steht ein Konsens über Definitionen und empirische Messung bislang aus. In diesem Beitrag werden Dimensionen und Indikatoren zur Messung und Dokumentation von Ausgrenzungsprozessen vorgeschlagen. Mit Hilfe von Euromodule-Daten, einer repräsentativen Bevölkerungsumfrage für europäische Wohlfahrtsvergleiche, wird das Zusammenspiel von materiellem Lebensstandard und sozialer Teilhabe in Ungarn, Spanien und Deutschland analysiert. Die drei Länder unterscheiden sich in ihren sozialen Sicherungssystemen ebenso wie in ihrem Wohlfahrtsniveau. Vergleichsprozesse und Unterstützung durch soziale Netzwerke sind zwei wichtige Faktoren, die das Risiko sozialer Ausgrenzung wesentlich beeinflussen." (Autorenreferat