Conference Theme

ESPAnet conferences attempt to stimulate exchange among scholars in the field of European social policy analysis and to promote inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches.

In this tradition the 5th Annual ESPAnet Conference 2007 focuses on changing paradigms in European social policy and in European social policy analysis. The conference provides a forum to address theoretical and methodological questions, to reflect on inter- and multi-disciplinarity in social policy research and to discuss novel analytical trends. It will also deal with changing paradigms in the concept, and in the actual configuration, of social policies in Europe. It will ask whether there are shifts in underlying basic principles, ideas or objectives, which factors might drive such changes and what directions this might indicate for the future of social policies in Europe.