Concluding Remarks A “Social Quality Observatory” for Central and Eastern European Countries?

van der Maesen, Laurent J. G.

More than twenty years ago many European scholars started with the development of a new theory and its application with a declaration, the first paragraph of which follows here: Respect for the fundamental human dignity of all citizens requires us to declare that we do not want to see growing numbers of beggars, tramps and homeless in the cities of Europe. Nor can we countenance a Europe with large numbers of unemployed, growing numbers of poor people and those who have only limited access to health care and social services. These and many other negative indicators demonstrate the current inadequacy of Europe to provide social quality for all its citizens. At that time, it was signed by one thousand scholars from Western, Central, and Eastern European countries (IASQ 1997). Since then societal relationships have changed, also due the radical new techniques for communication and also miscommunication. This thematic issue of the International Journal of Social Quality tries to explain the new challenges for, among other things, the contemporary state of affairs of the theory and application of social quality. In this case, we are talking about the SQT and the SQA as they apply to Central and Eastern European countries. With this in mind, how can we interpret this declaration of more than twenty years ago?

MEDICAL care; MISCOMMUNICATION; SOCIAL services

International Journal of Social Quality, 2020, Vol 10, Issue 2, p113

1757-0344

Academic Journal

10.3167/IJSQ.2020.100209