Peter Herrmann

Menschenrechtsdiskussionen, globale (Sozial-) Politik und die Bem hungen der UN f r Menschliche Entwicklung ("Human Development") und Menschliche Sicherheit ("Human Security") geraten in zwei grunds tzliche "Sackgassen" Zum einen wird ein bestimmtes Mo-dell von existierenden "entwickelten Staaten," d.h. mit hoch entwickeltem Kapitalismus, als einziges Ideal vorgestellt, ohne dass andere fortschrittliche Modelle ernsthaft ber cksichtigt werden. Eine m gliche denkbare Alternative ist h chstens die romantisierende Vorstellung einer "guten" Gesellschaft, welche sich in vielen F llen auf eine Art naive "G te" einer indi-genen Lebensweise bezieht. Zum anderen wird - nicht fern der erw hnten Alternativen - auf abstrakte Konzepte von Gerechtigkeit und Freiheit etc. hingewiesen, auf moralische Aussa-gen, die jedoch zur Trennung von systematischem sozio konomischem ebenso wie politisch-rechtlichem Denken f hren. Der vorliegende Band versucht, aus sozial-philosophischer Perspektive die politische ko-nomie und das Sozialrecht zusammenzuf hren, um ein Verst ndnis von allgemeiner Verant-wortlichkeit f r soziale Qualit t weltweit zu entwickeln. Besondere Beitr ge sind eine Einf h-rung in den theoretischen Ansatz der sozialen Qualit t, ein Exkurs ber islamische Gesell-schaften und ein Exkurs hinsichtlich asiatischer Sichtweisen. Das Buch "Social Quality - Looking for a Global Social Policy" mit dem Untertitel "Attemp-ting an Approximation to the Analysis of Distances of Social Systems" ist der zweite Band der Serie "Studien zu vergleichender Sozialp dagogik und internationaler Sozialarbeit und Sozialpolitik," welche eine Fortsetzung der fast gleichnamigen Serie ist, die von Franz Ham-burger beim Sch uble Verlag, Rheinfelden herausgegeben wurde. Die Serie thematisiert problemorientiert sozialp dagogischen Theorien und die Arbeit sozialer Strukturen im internatio-nalen Rahmen und Vergleich. Dabei wird die Serie als ein Forum f r Diskussionen und Ver- ffentlichungen begriffen,

The guiding question of this work is the following: In which way, if at all, can we define a framework that allows a comparative view on social professional activity in an international perspective? Going beyond positivist research usually means to look for qualitative standards, however remaining caught by taking individual professions in a national setting from one country for granted and looking from what we know for 'counterparts' and/or 'partners' in other countries. To avoid the subsequent shortcoming of an underlying 'professional rigidity' we face the need of developing a functional perspective, focusing on the societies in which Social Professional Activities (SPA) emerge in their respective particular national patterns. This means, however, to start by defining 'the social' as determining societies in general, looking from there at different national patterns -- pragmatically but as well structurally the nation state will be taken as point of reference. In such a perspective, several current concepts have to be fundamentally questioned as far as the mainstream consensus is concerned. Terms in question are in particular: the social, professions and social problems - this is especially necessary when it comes to developing an international perspective. Despite the need of looking for a general definition of the social, there is in particular a more specific need for debating the understanding of different strands of activities that are - in the widest sense - captured as social professions, for example social work, community/youth work, nursing and care professions, but as well social management and social action (especially the latter pointing on the problematique of professionalisation in strictu sensu). International comparative research of social professional activities does not fail (primarily) because of the huge variety of national regimes and regulations. The actual reason is the fundamentally different point of departure, expressing various national traditions of the reasoning on the state - a reasoning being at the end a practical reasoning. In other words, we have to recur on the different national understanding of 'social contracts'. This approach allows taking a dialectical perspective in order to revisit the actual character of social professional activities. It is the practical confrontation of the individual with his/her environment that constitutes processes of socialisation.

Welfare is a current global issue challenging the lives of many. Investigations are constantly being made to find answers in search of the most proficient social model. This book presents the usefulness of an enhanced model for welfare regime analysis and shows the localisation of social professional orientations. This includes social quality, social professions, traditions, public services, globalisation, child protection, retirement plans and other social services.

Part One of this new book presents four lectures not meant to be a textbook in the traditional sense. Nevertheless, it is meant to be used as material guiding lectures and students alike through their work in the field of European social policy-making. Being understood as guidance, this means as well that many parts are not fully elaborated. Some hints are given -- and in many cases there is a debate behind them that would justify its own book. For example there is a complex debate on European integration and the question if and in which sense it is legitimate to interpret current processes as processes of 'nation' or 'state building'. Part II is seemingly quite different, a piece of academic work, going back to the authors involvement in a project on social indicators under the auspices of the European Foundation on Social Quality. Still, there are at least two strong links or similarities. This document is as well very much a discussion document -- it evolved from an intense debate in the project, being already a revision of previous versions.

This study is the outcome of empirical research on the development and decay tendencies of the capitalist world economy since the early 1980s and the role that Europe will play in these constellations. Over these years the conclusion was reached that the logic of capitalist world development changes with the ups and downs of longer Kondratieff cycles, and that different periods of hegemony and of world political constellations, connected with these Kondratieff cycles, in turn give rise to different constellations of world economic ascent and decline. Those that hoped that world trade and open financial markets would shift incomes in favour of the poor, must now recognise that -- however we look at the figures -- there is a tendency towards rising poverty on a global scale, especially after the Asian crash of 1997.