EUROSHIP

This project looks at closing gaps in social citizenship and new tools to foster social resilience in Europe.

About

Social inequalities across Europe are rising. Poverty rates have increased, and men and women with low education face unemployment and precarious working conditions, such as zero-hour contracts. Meanwhile, many citizens fail to fully exercise their social rights due to a lack of information and complex bureaucratic procedures. These factors threaten the wellbeing of European citizens and challenge EU ambitions for an inclusive and cohesive Europe.

EUROSHIP will explore the effectiveness of social protection policies that aim to reduce poverty and social exclusion in Europe. The project will examine how individual citizens and households cope with social risks – such as low education, low income, and care obligations – and identify how social protection policies affect citizens’ life choices. In particular, the project will focus on three key groups of citizens: youth at risk, precarious workers with care obligations, and elderly and disabled people with long-term care needs.

Methodology

The team will employ a range of research methods, including:

  • coordinated life course interviews with low-skilled and low-income women and men
  • focus forums with national stakeholders
  • policy analyses based on document review and semi-structured expert interviews
  • quantitative analyses of comparative micro-data.

Impact and outreach

The project aims to develop proposals for effective policies and inform policymakers about how best to close the current gaps in social citizenship and foster a cohesive and socially resilient Europe. The outcomes of the project will also help to realize the ambitions reflected in the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Professor Jacqueline O’Reilly, UK lead on the project, said, “EUROSHIP gives us a very timely opportunity to understand how well social protection policies bridge the gaps in social citizenship and how the future for UK citizens compares with those in other European countries."

Further information

The project, funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme, will be carried out by a consortium of academic institutions from eight countries, including Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The project is funded for three years, starting in April 2020.

More about the EUROSHIP project.