POVERTY AND SOCIAL SERVICES: EU EXAMPLES AND THE ‘IT’ RISE

Abstract

Social services are designed to alleviate the risks individuals are facing due to poverty and, on a larger scale, to reduce the anthropogenic impact on the environment (through disturbed interconnections with the environment). Four types of social services of general interest are discussed in this paper for two groups of EU countries: four new EU-members and post-socialist countries (Hungary and Poland are EU-members since 2004, while Romania and Bulgaria since 2007) versus UK and Ireland (the ‘liberal’ state-model and the ‘Celtic tiger’ or the overlapping of the 'liberal' state with the 'corporatist' state). In addition, the link between social services and the distribution of income inequality is analysed for elders and active people. From a different perspective, social services offered through ‘social enterprises’ in some of the European models and in the US are compared. Finally, the ‘IT’ rise is connected to Smart Social Services.

Keywords

• social services
• smart social services
• social services of general interest
• income inequality