LUIGI FREY UNIVERSIT LA SAPIENZA DI ROMA

1

EUROPEAN COMMISSION Employment, Social Affairs
and Equal Opportunities DG   Employment, Lisbon
Strategy, International Affairs European
Employment Strategy, CSR, Local Development
Flexicurity for the young foundations and
characteristics of the capability approach

• LUIGI FREY UNIVERSITÀ LA SAPIENZA DI ROMA
• RENATA LIVRAGHI - UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI
  PARMASTUDY CONTRACT VC/2006/0618

2
Aims and contents

• Flexicurity requires economic and social policies
  to become increasingly integrated
• Flexicurity is necessary but not sufficient to
  integrate young people in economic systems. The
  flexicurity model must be evaluated from the
  capability approach. This means constructing a
  human development index of young people to
  outline economic and social policies in the
  different contexts
• The model of flexicurity depends on the context.
  The EU countries have different flexicurity
  models and pathways and different times to
  achieve the European employment paradigm
• Flexicurity is one of the procedures for
  converting capabilities (real opportunities) into
  achieved functionings. More generally,
  group-dependent constraints (prejudices, social
  norms, habits, traditions) can affect the
  conversion of commodities into functionings
• The capability approach gives importance to human
  diversity and to the context. This approach
  accounts for diversity in two ways by its focus
  on functionings and capabilities as evaluative
  space and by the explicit role it assigns to
  personal and socio-environmental factors
  converting commodities into functionings and the
  basic agreements that determine a flexicurity
  model
• Young peoples achieved functions and the
  different flexicurity models have been researched
  in the different countries. Achieved
  functionings are very different from young
  peoples capabilities in different contexts.
  Economic literature indicates the theoretical
  difficulties to overcome in measuring
  capabilities. All empirical research measures
  achieved functionings.
• Some open issues

3
Flexicurity requires economic and social policies
to become increasingly integrated

• Flexicurity is innovation and experiment in new
  social policies
• Flexicurity models for young people must provide
  individuals and young families with the support
  they need to respond to change
• Flexicurity must be incorporated in the practice
  and expansion of capabilities with regards to the
  theory of development for social cohesion and
  economic vitality

4
Flexicurity is necessary but not sufficient to
integrate young people in economic systems.
Flexicurity must be evaluated from the capability
approach. This means constructing a human
development index of young people to outline
economic and social policies in the different
contexts

• We will propose criteria and methods based on the
  capability approach for the evaluation and
  formulation of integrated economic and social
  policies that also promote and enhance the
  individual and community exercise of freedom. In
  particular, we refer to the capacities of
  communities and individuals in them to draw from
  their own strengths to move beyond the
  limitations of disadvantage
• At present, there is no widely accepted best
  practice method for the evaluation of economic
  or social policies
• Freedom-centred development shares similarities
  with quality of life concerns that concentrate on
  the choices people have and not just on their
  income resources
• This agency aspect of individual freedom has a
  bearing on many public policy issues. It
  challenges strategic choices, such as using
  fine-tuned targeting for the ideal delivery of
  services to a supposedly inert population, or
  devising policies and programmes to enhance
  greater social, economic and civic participation
  in society. People have to be given the
  opportunity to shape their own destiny and not
  simply become the passive recipients of
  development programmes

5
The flexicurity model depends on the context.
The EU countries have different flexicurity
models and pathways and different times to
achieve the European employment paradigm

• Flexicurity aims to combine employers
  flexibility requirements with those of workers'
  safety, moving from job security (job protection)
  to security in terms of employability" and
  capacity to perform a given job (work ability)
• The flexicurity models which have produced
  positive results from an economic and social
  point of view are those which have matched
  contractual flexibility with security and
  life-long learning
• If these are the cornerstones for a successful
  flexicurity strategy, it seems clear that
  countries with high social capital, high
  education performance and greater social cohesion
  have a clear advantage in implementing it
• Flexicurity is not a panacea, nor a strategy for
  certain success although promising good results,
  its requires adequate investments and severe
  economic policies. Flexicurity policies do not
  cover the protection rights of workers, for
  example, with regards to working conditions and
  non-discrimination. The different national
  situations may need corrective actions or at
  least an effort of imagination when adapting
  models from other contexts

6
Flexicurity is one of the procedures for
converting capabilities (real opportunities) into
achieved functionings. More generally,
group-dependent constraints (prejudices, social
norms, habits, traditions) can affect the
conversion of commodities into functionings

• The relationship between capabilities and
  achieved functionings is influenced by the role
  of agency and by four groups of conversion
  factors
• The four groups of conversion factors are
  personal conversion factors (e.g. metabolism,
  physical condition, gender, reading skills and
  intelligence) influencing how a person can
  convert commodities into functionings social
  conversion factors (e.g. public policies, social
  norms, discriminating practices, gender roles,
  societal hierarchies and power relations)
  environmental conversion factors (e.g. target
  culture, shared traditions, geographical location
  and climate) flexicurity models (social capital,
  social cohesion, ability to design social
  contracts and willingness to respect them, lack
  of free riders, trust between the various
  stakeholders)
• Young people are also discriminated in the labour
  market and employers are prejudiced against them.
  It will be more difficult for them to transform
  their capabilities into agency

7
The capability approach gives importance to
human diversity and to context. The capability
approach accounts for diversity in two ways by
its focus on functionings and capabilities as
evaluative space and by the explicit role it
assigns to personal and socio-environmental
factors that convert commodities into
functionings and also the basic agreements that
determine a model of flexicurity

• The capability approach is a broad normative
  framework for the evaluation of individual
  well-being and social arrangements, the design of
  policies and proposals about social change in
  society
• The capability approach thus acknowledges the
  normative importance of groups. In this case, the
  normative importance of young people in different
  contexts
• One of the most important advantages in using
  capability sets as metrics for policy analysis is
  that they are linked to specific historical
  periods and contexts as well as development
  stages of particular individuals, communities and
  regions. The use of capability sets enables
  adapting to a variety of complex situations
  difficult to achieve with more conventional
  metrics
• There is a basic problem, however, in
  establishing a relationship between the number or
  quantity of elementary and developed freedoms
  that make up capability sets and a qualitative
  judgment about the outcomes and processes which
  the freedoms make possible. There clearly is a
  need for a method of measurement or evaluation to
  bridge the distance between the number or
  quantity of freedoms in a capability set and
  making a qualitative judgment about exercises of
  freedom that are more than the sum of their parts
• There are other ways in which capability sets
  could be used as criteria for social policy in a
  theoretical attempt to correlate quantitative and
  qualitative measurements

8
The achieved functionings of young people and the
different models of flexicurity have been
researched in the different countries. Achieved
functionings are very different from capabilities
of young people in different contexts. Economic
literature indicates the theoretical difficulties
to overcome when measuring capabilities. All
empirical research measures achieved functionings

• The capability approach involves concentration
  on freedoms to achieve in general and the
  capabilities to function in particular (Sen
  1995). The major constituents of the capability
  approach are functionings and capabilities.
  Functionings are the beings and doings of a
  person, whereas a persons capability is the
  various combinations of functionings that a
  person can achieve. Capability is thus a set of
  vectors of functionings, reflecting a persons
  freedom to lead one type of life or another (Sen
  1992). Peoples functionings and their
  capabilities are closely related but distinct
• Capability is thus closely related to the idea of
  real opportunity. This raises the question of how
  to measure opportunities instead of outcomes.
  There are a number of reasons why it is much more
  difficult to measure a persons capability than
  his/her achieved functionings
• Some functionings have been incorporated in the
  complex index of human development (human
  development index 1990 human freedom index 1991
  gender-disparity-adjusted 1995 gender
  empowerment measure 1995 human poverty index
  1997 Undp)
• Research has tried to estimate the real
  opportunities of young people by taking into
  account the PISA research results. It estimates
  the quality and equity of 15 year-olds education
• Capabilities are possibilities for young people
  which may not have been chosen. We have no tools
  to analyse the reason for a choice. The
  governments role can increase capabilities and
  eliminate the constraints to youth action

9
Some Open Issues

• Request to construct a complex index of human
  development of young people to better explain
  economic and social policies, integrating
  flexicurity models with a broadening of
  capabilities and lower constraints in different
  contexts
• Research suggests focusing on the quality and
  equity of education as a necessary condition for
  making effective strategies of life-long learning
  for all