European Services of General Interests - Europäische Daseinsvorsorge

Throughout Europe we find a periodical discussion on the future of welfare – strangely not so much tackled as a matter of wellbeing and social policy but more as a question of the future of welfare organisations. A major topic here was in particular since 2000 the fear of liberalisation of social services under the heading of the Services of General Interests. However, welfare associations lead the debate largely from a purely defensive position, promoting two arguments. The one built on the economic strength of the organisations; the other simply claimed that traditional privileges of the organisations in questions should be kept.
This volume, however, reminds at the wider setting, namely the political and normative aims of social services, features that contradict claims of simple competitiveness orientations.