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Purpose of the Paper 6\VWHPVRI6RFLDO,QGLFDWRUVDQG6RFLDO5HSRUWLQJ 7KH6WDWHRIWKH$UW Regina Berger-Schmitt Beate Jankowitsch EuReporting Working Paper No. 1 7RZDUGVD(XURSHDQ6\VWHPRI 6RFLDO5HSRUWLQJDQG:HOIDUH 0HDVXUHPHQW A TSER-Project Financed by the European Commission Subproject (XURSHDQ6\VWHPRI6RFLDO ,QGLFDWRUV Centre for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA) Social Indicators Department Mannheim 1999 Contents page 1. Introduction 4 2. International Approaches of Social Indicators Research and Social 9 Reporting 2.1 General Activities in the Field of Social Indicators Research and Social 9 Reporting 2.1.1 Development of Systems of Indicators and Related Work 9 2.1.2 Comprehensive Statistical Compendiums 12 2.2 Activities in Special Fields of Social Indicators Research and Social 17 Reporting 2.2.1 Population 17 2.2.2 Education, Culture, Science 19 2.2.3 Labour and Social Protection 23 2.2.4 Poverty and Social Exclusion 26 2.2.5 Health 31 2.2.6 Housing, Human Settlements, and Transport 34 2.2.7 Environment and Sustainability 36 2.2.8 Crime 42 2.2.9 Special Population Groups 43 2.2.9.1 Women and Gender Inequality 43 2.2.9.2 Elderly People 45 2.2.9.3 Children 46 2.2.9.4 Disabled 46 2.2.9.5 Migrants and Foreigners 47 2.3 Summary 50 page 3. National Approaches of Social Indicators Research and Social Reporting 51 3.1 Level of Living Research in the Nordic Countries 52 3.2 Quality of Life Research 58 3.3 Living Conditions Approach 65 3.4 Living Standard Research in Central and Eastern European Countries: 76 Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland 4. Summary and Conclusions 79 References 83 3 1. Introduction Social reporting at the European level has gained growing importance due to the Maastricht Treaty of the European Union and the objectives formulated there. The growth of individual welfare, especially the enhancement of employment, the improvement of living and working conditions, a high level of social protection, the combat against poverty and social exclusion, as well as the convergence of social conditions between member states are pointed out as principle aims of the European unification. In order to assess the attainment of these goals regular European-wide social reporting is required which is based on a system of cross-nationally comparable social statistics and indicators. Although some kind of social reporting can be stated in nearly every EU-country and a bulk of international social reports is provided by organisations like United Nations, OECD or the European Commission/Eurostat scientific approaches of social reporting at the European level can hardly be found. Thus, the establishment of a science-based European system of social reporting developed under theoretically and methodologically well- grounded considerations still remains a major challenge. This task is being addressed by the EUREPORTING project "Towards a European System of Social Reporting and Welfare Measurement" which is financed by the European Commission in the framework of the TSER-Programme for a three years period starting in March 1998. The EUREPORTING project consists of three subprojects focussing on specific topics of the overall objective: - the subproject "System of Social Indicators" is working on the development of a science-based European system of social indicators which may constitute the core of a European Social Report - the subproject "Stocktaking of Comparative Databases in Survey Research" is working on the development of an information base on the subject matters, comparability, and accessibility of survey data relevant to social reporting. - the subproject "Access to Comparative Microdata" is working on the development of an information base on the subject matters, comparability, and accessibility of official microdata relevant to social reporting. All subprojects are carried through in cooperation with scientists from 13 European countries who complement the work by contributing relevant research work and aspects specific to their countries. The present working paper has been produced within the context of research of the subproject "System of Social Indicators". The objective of this subproject is to develop a coherent system of measurement dimensions and indicators derived from an elaborated theoretical framework and related to well-defined concepts of welfare. Such a system of social indicators should prove as a useful tool for monitoring the level of welfare and social change in Europe and for assessing progress towards the convergence of living conditions in the various member states. The first step of work towards a European system of social indicators consists of taking stock of social indicators research and social reporting at the 4 national as well as supranational level. This means a systematic compilation and investigation of material on social statistics and indicators, theoretical and methodological work related with it, and of statistical compendiums and social reports available hitherto. The purpose of this rather broad perspective of stocktaking which goes beyond the mere consideration of V\VWHPV of social indicators and social reports in a strict sense is to build the development of a European system of social indicators on a wide range of relevant information and knowledge on important elements and aspects to be considered. The results of this stocktaking are summarised in this working paper. The material presented in the paper at hand is the result of an extensive search for and review of literature and an inquiry of the activities of organisations and research institutes in the field of social indicators research and social reporting. In this process the Internet proved to be an important information tool (virtual libraries and webpages of the organisations). The literature collected has been stored in a database which - besides the working paper - documents the state of the art in this field. The working paper will give an overview on social indicators research and social reporting activities focusing on the time period of the last 10 to 15 years. The early beginning of social indicators research and the developments till the 1980s will not be handled in great detail here. In the following we will only give a short overview on this period relying on the work of other authors (1). For the development of social indicators research and social reporting four phases may be distinguished (2): 1. the origins and the formation of social indicators research from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s 2. the booming phase during the 1970s in which social indicators research and social reporting became established on the national and international level 3. the period of stagnation from the end of the 1970s to the mid-1980s 4. the reviving interest since the mid-1980s. The present work of stocktaking is concentrated on the research activities during this last phase. The origins of social indicator research are considered to date back to the mid-1960s in the USA where in the framework of a project of the NASA the side effects of the space programme on society should be explored. In this context the necessity of establishing a system of social indicators was recognised (3). Further work in the 1960s which initiated the social indicators movement was a project of the Russell Sage Foundation on "Monitoring of Social Change" (4) and a project of the U.S. Department for Health, Education and Welfare to develop a prototype of a social report (5). At the end of the 60s and during the 70s the ideas and propositions have been taken up by other countries as well as by international organisations. The United Nations, for example, developed a System for Social and Demographic Statistics (SDSS) which represented a social accounting system (6). The OECD launched a Social Indicator Development Programme of which a first output consisted in the "List of Social Concerns" (7). The 5 formation and the spread of the social indicators movement was promoted by the increasing awareness of the insufficiency of economic indicators to describe societal development, the limits of economic growth and the discussion on its social and ecological impacts. In this context the concept of quality of life arose as an alternative to the goal of material level of living. The measurement of quality of life became - besides monitoring of general social trends - one of the main concerns of social indicators research. As to their function of quality-of- life or welfare indicators social indicators should be directly related to societal goals (normative character of social indicators), they should rather refer to individuals than to society as a whole, and they should rather measure outputs of activities and processes than inputs. Originally there have been two distinct approaches to the definition and operationalisation of individual welfare: the Scandinavian level of living research and the Anglo-Saxon quality of life research. The Scandinavian approach puts the focus on objective or descriptive rather than evaluative welfare indicators whereas the American/British quality of life approach is concentrated on subjective indicators. Meanwhile a combination of both approaches prevails and objective and subjective welfare indicators are considered as equally important. The different approaches of welfare measurement are the result of different welfare concepts. The Scandinavian level of living research relies on a resource concept of welfare. The individual's command over resources through which the individual can direct its living conditions, the "arenas" (external circumstances) in which the resources are used and their interactions are viewed as essential components of welfare (8). In opposition to this the Anglo-American quality of life approach defines welfare in terms of need satisfaction which can only be assessed by the individuals themselves (9). The nowadays prevailing research strategy to consider objective as well as subjective indicators is based on a definition of welfare or quality of life as the combination of objective living conditions and subjective well-being (10). Of course, there are various other welfare concepts, too, of which a few examples may be mentioned here.
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