Review

Abstract

A new book, 'Social Quality: A Vision for Europe', edited by Beck, van den Maesen, Thomese and Walker has just been published under the egide of the European Foundation of Social Quality (Beck et al., 2001). This book is a follow-up to 'The Social Quality of Europe', edited by Beck, van den Maesen and Walker and published in 1997 (Beck et al., 1997). Both books belong to the context of the 1997 'Amsterdam Decla ration on the Social Quality of Europe', an attempt by social scientists and social policy experts to influence the political decision-makers of the European Union in the direction of an increased concern for 'social qual ity' (SQ) — to complement or supercede the traditional pursuit of purely economic objectives. How the term 'social quality' should be understood and how the con cern for 'social quality' should translate into policies has been the sub ject of deliberations and controversies since the start of the SQ initiative in 1997. In the present book, fourteen contributions to this debate are collected, along with five framing chapters by the editors, two brief applauding forewords by none less than Romano Prodi, the current presi dent of the European Commission, and Anna Diamantopoulou, the Com mission member responsible for Social Affairs and Employment, and, finally, an epilogue by Gyorgy Konrâd, who can certainly claim to repre sent today the prototype of the future European intellectual. This epilogue is entitled 'The Special Quality of Europe is Culture' and with it, the impression is completed that became stronger the further one's reading of the book advanced: all contributors appear to be fasci nated by 'social quality' (SQ) and strongly supportive of the initiative, but most associate quite different aspects of social reality with the term. One result of this diversity is not only that the range of matters discussed under the heading of SQ is extremely wide, but also that the type of con cern varies widely, from dominantly normative statements of political goals to analytical efforts, descriptions and explanations or to the con struction of empirical observation instruments. Instead of replicating this diversity, I will concentrate in this review on some clarifications. They seem to be appropriate given the current state of the debate on SQ as documented in the book: