Ecological-Economy and Society in Europe. Outline of a Research Project

By understanding better how certain socioeconomic systems work, what chances for transformation they contain, and hence determining on these bases how they may evolve, we will be in a better position to look for the compatibilities and synergies that may be established among economic activities, social policies, and interventions in defense of environmental equilibria. It will also become clearer if, and how, it is possible to make these different needs interact for the better of all concerned. The research project illustrated here intends to contribute to our knowledge in this sense. The research objective is to study the historical formation and more recent evolution of the economic and social models that characterise some European countries in order to see how these models have favoured the combination of the economic, social and environmental objectives that may ensure a development that is fairly well-balanced and acceptable for the people living there. The comparison is carried out among countries whose characteristics, in social structure and political events, are quite different, so that they represent diverse types of development. The research is based on their history following the Second World War but is of an interdisciplinary nature, profiting from economic and sociological analyses, especially from the studies of recent decades. The final part of the research attempts to pinpoint the new challenges in economic growth, social welfare and respect for the environment that European countries find themselves facing today.