Book Review: International Standard-Setting and Innovations in Social Security
| Author | Younes Charbegoo |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271501700108 |
| Published date | 01 March 2015 |
| Date | 01 March 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Reviews
European Jour nal of Social Sec urity, Volume 17 (2015), No. 1 137
workers feelings of income and employment securit y. He nds that there are extreme
var iat ions in su ch fee lin gs am ong t he Eu rope an c ount ries . ese variations seem to be
caused more by the general wealt h of the nations and to a lesser degree on their social
security systems.
One of Jos Berghman’s main interests was pensions, and par t 5 of the book is
devoted to this theme. Hans Peeters focuses on the interaction of scal and pension
policy, and he shows how inconsistent thinking i n these areas has had u nintended
consequences. Fieke van der Leek, Jairo Rivera-Rozo and Onno Steenbeck have
studied empirical ly how structura l and cultur al factors have in uenced pension
systems, and their st udy of the pension systems in 34 OECD-countries con rm their
hypothesis that t hese factors have been in uential.
In the last two chapters of t he book Jaak Bill iet and Bart Meulema n (chapter 16)
and Jacques Hadenaars and Wim v an Oorschot (chapter 17) discusses methodological
questions in comparative socia l security research. eir contributions i llustrates that
progress in methodolog y and data collect ion have opened up new possibilities to
answer old questions.
e editors of this book have done a much better job than editors of ant hologies
usually do. ey have persuaded the contr ibutors to focus on a common theme, namely
the understanding of what social securit y is. When they have succeeded, this is also
because Jos Berghman’s thoughts in 1986 sti ll are capable of inspiring researchers. e
book is a worthy memorial of Jos Berg hman.
Aksel Hatland
Institute for Social Research (ISF)
Oslo
Aksel Hatla nd is now a Senior Researcher Emeritus at the Institute for Soc ial Research
in Oslo. He was Deputy Director of the Ministry of Social A airs unti l 1981 and
then Research Director at Norweg ian Social Resea rch and the Research Council of
Norway. He served as a Vice President of the European Institute for Social Sec urity
(EISS) during a period while Jos Berg hman was President.
Ulrich Becker, Frans Pennings a nd Tineke Dijkho (ed s.) International Standard-
Setting and Innovations i n Social Security, Alphen aa n den Rijn: Kluwer Law
International, 2013, 560 pp., ISBN 978-90- 411-3728-9 (hardcover)
e expansion of globali sation in recent decades has made social security more
necess ary tha n ever and the q uestion of role of social sec urity sta ndards in pr otecting
all people, part icularly vul nerable groups, has been recently debated in the eld of
international social se curity law.
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