SocIEtY

Empowering the Young for the Common Good

The overall goal of SocIEtY is to improve the quality of life of disadvantaged young people through social innovation. In doing so the aim of SocIEtY is not only to identify opportunities to reduce inequalities, but also to extend and build knowledge and tools for the ultimate policy goal of a ‘good life for all’. The project consequently takes the perspective of how young people aged 15-24 live in different European countries today; it examines what can be done to create social and institutional opportunities which will better enable them to live lives they
have reason to value. This includes the participation, voices and aspirations of the young people themselves. Taking the capability approach as the conceptual basis, SocIEtY in particular refers to the concept of “Informational Basis of the Judgement of Justice” (IBJJ) introduced by Amartya Sen. Thus the project delivers an empirical foundation to broaden the informational basis of local policies in two ways:

• It goes beyond the focus on the policy fields of employment and education to encompass a more coherent perspective taking more policy fields into account;
• The informational basis is informed by a bottom-up perspective, including the voice and aspirations of young people and their participative engagement.

13 research teams in 11 European countries are associated to the project.

Website: http://www.society-youth.eu/

Some publications based on the project:

• Bonvin, J.-M. (2013). La participation à l'aune de l'approche par les capacités d'Amartya Sen. In F. Claisse, C. Laviolette, M. Reuchamps & C. Ruyters (Eds.), La participation en action (pp. 41-54). Bruxelles : P.I.E. Peter Lang. (Téléchargez l'introduction du livre)
• Beuret, B., Bonvin, J.-M., & Dahmen, S. (2013). Identifying and Tackling Inequality. A Challenge for Social Work. Revue suisse de travail social, 15, 9-26.