Social Challenge of Development: Globalisation, Inequalities and Social Protection
Annual Call for Projects 2001
Summary
Within the GIAN framework and with its financial support, six institutions have decided to co-operate in an analysis of the effects of globalisation on inequality. This is one of the major questions of our time, at the intersection of politics and economics. The project considers the general impact of globalisation, and also focuses on health, education and social protection.
The Graduate Institute for Development Studies (GIDS) in Geneva, UNRISD (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development) and the Faculty of Economics of the University of Geneva are leading this research and training program. They will work in close co-operation with the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Lausanne, the International Social Security Association (ISSA), Geneva, and the Réalise Association, Geneva, who are also full partners of the programme.
Case studies will be carried out in Vietnam, Bulgaria, South Africa and Mali, as well as in Geneva itself, with the co-operation of local researchers. The teams aim at producing a first set of results and conclusions after 18 months.
The research is interdisciplinary, involving academics, international organisations and an NGO. It aims to promote synergies useful for future research and training activities of all concerned, as well as others, thanks to expected cross-fertilisation effects. The project should eventually propose and/or reinforce interdisciplinary training, such as the DESS presently under joint preparation at the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva entitled "Globalisation and Social Regulation", expected to begin in October 2002.
An interdisciplinary seminar will be conducted jointly by all partners in February/March 2003. The major studies and their conclusions will be published, conventionally and on the Internet. These activities will enable broad sharing and discussion of the first outputs of this research and training programme. The planned synthesis report, to be published after the seminar, will reflect the exchange of views and will include a set of concrete strategy and policy proposals for further consideration and use.
The project is organised as follows: research will be undertaken on one general section and one thematic section concerning each of the three major topics (social protection, education and health). In the first general section, researchers will address the relationship between economic growth and development on the one hand, and the increasingly inequitable distribution of produced wealth on the other hand. They will trace the shared characteristics of these socially destructive processes and trends, and focus in particular on the extent of their impact on income distribution. This broad approach concerning the links between economic globalisation, inequality, growth and development will be complemented by the three sector analyses. It may gather supporting evidence from the three selected sectors (social protection, education and health), where the negative effects of globalisation appear to have been severely felt. These three sectors are to be researched more in detail in the second section of the research and training program. The planned work will include research on the essential components of, and appropriate indicators for, a development strategy combining growth, development and equity.
The second thematic section will conduct empirical research on the effects of globalisation in three areas: social protection, education and health. One of the basic hypotheses is that the acceleration of the globalisation process weakens the capacity of governments to promote or retain socially sensitive distributive mechanisms in health and education that have demonstrated in the past a positive impact on social development and justice.
The research will also use the country evidence to explore the widely held hypothesis that international commitment for the promotion of rights-based mechanisms to protect groups and individuals is weakening.
Finally, a similar analysis will look for evidence that globalisation and its accompanying trends and policies tend to dismantle essential institutions closely linked to the political and social rights of citizens, such as universal education.
In the area of health care, the "universalist" approach is under threat. New policies tend to promote health care privatisation and cost recovery in the spirit of the so-called "new public management". In the field of retirement, the trend is towards a gradual decrease of public pension schemes. The pay-as-you-go defined benefit pension schemes are declining in favor of privately managed defined contribution pension plans. In education, reforms tend to promote gradual privatisation of educational systems with an increased participation by the individuals concerned or their families. A stronger, more systematic link to be established between schools and universities with the productive profit-making world is also encouraged.
Developing countries and former communist countries in Eastern Europe have become experimentation laboratories for social policies reforms, with some high costs being born by their populations. Similar reforms are also being tried and undertaken in developed countries. A comparison will show the variety of these adventurous trends, as well as their convergence.
The grant provided by the GIAN for this project totals SFr 498,500
Project Team
Prof. Christian Coméliau , Coordinator, Graduate Institute of Development Studies (GIDS) .
Prof. Michel Carton , Co-coordinator, Graduate Institute of Development Studies (GIDS) .
Prof. Yves Flückiger , Co-coordinator, Department of Political Economy , Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences (SES) , University of Geneva (Unige) .
Dr. Dalmer Hoskins , Co-coordinator, International Social Security Association (ISSA) .
Ms Maureen Mackintosh , Co-coordinator, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) .
Mr Jacques Martin , Co-coordinator, Graduate Institute of Development Studies (GIDS) .
Mr Christophe Dunand , Principal Member, Realize Association .
Mr Alexandre Freire , Principal Member, Graduate Institute of Development Studies (GIDS) .
Ms Fabienne Lagier , Principal Member, Graduate Institute of Development Studies (GIDS) .
Prof. François-Xavier Merrien , Principal Member, Institute of social and pedagogical science , Faculty of Social and Political Science (SSP) , University of Lausanne .
Ms Pauline Plagnat , Principal Member, Graduate Institute of Development Studies (GIDS) .
Mr Roland Sigg , Principal Member, International Social Security Association (ISSA) .
Ms Cynthia Hewitt , Former Member, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) .
Related Links
> GIDS-DSD , The Social Challenge of Development.
Research Output
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Globalisation and Social Protection: Political Economy
(available in French and English) > more |
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Globalisaton and Social Protection: Health
(available in English and French) > more |
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Globalisation and Social Protection: Education
(available in French and English) > more |
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Globalisation and Social Protection: Social Protection
(available in French only) > more |
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The Social Challenge of Development: Globalisation and Inequalities
> more |