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Analysing and Measuring Social Inclusion in a Global Context

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2010

Prepared by two independent experts at the request of the United Nations (UNDESA), this study demonstrates the analytical and operational relevance of "measuring social inclusion” as a practical tool with which to assess the impact and monitor the progress of social inclusion interventions at the local, regional, national and global levels. While the study offers examples drawn from around the world, it focuses particularly on the experience of the EU in constructing social indicators and in actually using them in the policy process (in the context of the so-called Social Open Method of Coordination); it also seeks to provide important insights and lessons relevant to a global application. The study is meant to serve as a guiding framework for policy-makers, researchers and practitioners interested in developing practical tools for evidence-based policymaking, impact assessment, monitoring and evaluation in the area of social inclusion, seen here as the process by which societies combat poverty and social exclusion. It is also meant to provide guidance on how to develop these tools, taking into consideration the specific contextual background of one’s own society. The study focuses on measurement and reflects on the conviction that quantification is an essential step in the analysis of poverty and social exclusion. At the same time, it highlights that quantitative indicators need to be accompanied by qualitative evidence, not the least because this helps in the interpretation of the numbers and provides a starting point for the understanding of the underlying mechanisms.

| Website Cambridge University Press

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Health Systems Governance in Europe: the Role of EU Law and Policy

Mossialos, E., Permanand, G., Baeten, R., Hervey, T. (eds.) (2010), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

This brand new book, a co-publication by the OSE and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, was funded by the Belgian federal health authorities (SPF Santé Publique) and the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (NIHDI/INAMI). It offers a state of the art of academic discussion on a number of current and emerging governance issues in EU healthcare policy, including regulatory, legal, ‘new governance’ and policy-making dynamics. In a first chapter the editors provide an initial snapshot of the current status of health (care) policy in the EU before examining specific challenges facing policy-makers. The second chapter, by Tamara Hervey and Bart Vanhercke, shows how health care law and policy (soft governance) in the EU can be understood as a double ‘patchwork’ of actors, institutions and discourses which become increasingly interwoven and thereby open the door for ‘hybrid’ policy instruments. In chapter four Scott Greer and Bart Vanhercke provide an overview of the emergence and development of a variety of new governance mechanisms in EU health policies, which mutually influenced each other and are part and parcel of ‘hard’ EU politics. Wouter Gekiere, Rita Baeten and Willy Palm discuss (In chapter 11) the direct application of the Treaty provisions on the free movement of services in the EU and consider the extent to which the application of these rules to health care go far beyond the issue of patient mobility. In chapter 12 Willy Palm and Irene Glinos (formerly at the OSE) analyse the issues with regard to patient mobility ten years after the Kohll and Decker rulings, and in the aftermath of the Commission’s proposed directive on cross-border health care. The main findings of this book were first presented at a conference in December 2008.

| Website Bruylant

Entrepreneuriat et Insertion 

Brasseur, M. (dir), (2010)
Bruylant, Brussels. 

The volume comprises a number of articles dedicated to the question of professional inclusion by means of entrepreneurship. The intentions of the editors was to capture and scrutinise numerous angles of the « alternative way of reaching social and professional inclusion » and employability , so the study touches upon different aspects, from the importance of microcredit till the affirmation of entrepreneurship as a destiny. Specific questions such as problems faced by disabled entrepreneurs or discrimination by sexual orientation are considered in the research as well. Thirty three experienced authors present their different views on efficiency of entrepreneurship as a source of inclusion. 
In clear and effective writings the authors support their thesis by numerous data and schemas. The book is useful for those involved in research, business, HR. For students a number of concrete questions and situations on the entrepreneurship and inclusion are attached which allow them to deepen the understanding.

| Website Peter Lang

European Integration from Rome to Berlin: 1957-2007, History, Law and Politics

Baquero Cruz, J., Closa Montero, C. (eds.) (2009)
P.I.E. Peter Lang, Brussels.

This edited volume is an interdisciplinary analysis of the past, present and future of the European Union. It addresses the lessons of EU history, its current challenges and its future perspectives. Areas examined include the evolution of the law of integration, Europe’s influence on political transitions, economic governance, social governance, the system of Treaty reform and its limits, the future role of the Court of Justice, enlargement and the vexed question of Turkish accession. One of the most striking conclusions of this book is that European integration through law has reached its limits (power has “broken free from the bounds of law”, as demonstrated by phenomena such as the Open Method of Coordination, discussed in several chapters of the book). 

|  Website Cambridge University (Order)

|  Website TMC Asser Press

The Changing Legal Framework for Services of General Interest in Europe
Between Competition and Solidarity

Krajewski, M., Neergaard, U., Van de Gronden, J. (eds.) (2009), TMC Asser Press, The Hague. 

This edited volume examines the impact of internal market, competition, state aid and public procurement law on the provision of services of general interest, in particular health services, social services and local public services. It consists of thirteen horizontal chapters taking into account the most recent ECJ case law, complete with ten country case studies covering both old and new Member States. 

| Website Kluwer

Calidad del trabajo en la Unión Europea. Concepto, tensiones, dimensiones

by Roger Blanpain (editor) (2009), Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations, N° 69, Kluwer Law International BV, The Netherlands

Two recent decisions of the European Court of Justice – Laval and Viking Line – have ignited a politically explosive controversy over the role of collective labour actions in the European industrial market. Far from settling a long-standing contentious issue, it appears that the Court has brought opposing interests into sharper conflict, in the process also exacerbating tensions between ‘old’ and ‘new’ Member States. Although the ultimate impact of the two decisions on national labour law regimes is unpredictable, the need for a summing-up of trends so far is clearly advantageous to all concerned parties. To this end, in this book nineteen labour law scholars present country reports detailing challenges and consequences of the rulings evident in twelve EU Member States, as well as in Norway and Russia.