SWINS Sustainable Well-being through Investment in Social Services

Produce a new comparative, gender sensitive and integrated framework for the measurement of the returns of investments in social services, this is the main objective of the project SWINS- Sustainable Well-being through Investment in Social Services. The overarching architecture of the project is aimed at producing new knowledge on how the returns of complementary different social services across the life course can be conceptualised, measured and linked to key outcomes such as employment, income, growth indicators, as well as to sustainable well being and macroeconomic stability indicators. The project is lead by the Inclusive Development Unit at ARCO -PIN Foundation and the UAB -Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and funded by European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme under Grant Agreement No. 101177566.

By reconnecting micro and macro dynamics, SWINS will develop and test a policy-oriented toolbox for the ex-ante assessment of the economic and social returns of investments in social services aimed at rethinking social services as a driver of the EU transition towards a sustainable wellbeing economy.

SWINS objectives

SWINS objectives are:

1. Develop a theoretical-operational framework that conceptualizes the link between social services and investigates their potential role in the transition to sustainable well-being from a rights-based perspective.
2. Define the relationship between investments in social services and economic and social performance at an aggregate level. This helps to understand how different spending scenarios in social services (education, health, social care, etc.) influence the overall economic and social well-being of a society (macro-regularities).
3. Identify micro-level mechanisms by examining how investments in social services drive aggregate social and economic performance, considering the actions, decisions, and interactions of individuals, families, businesses, etc..
4. Develop long-term projections to predict how these investments will impact growth, macroeconomic stability, and the transition to sustainable well-being, identifying which types of social investments are most effective.

Develop new strategies to integrate research results into institutional, legal, and policy frameworks, examining the implications of measuring investments in social services within the EU’s economic governance framework and exploring the political feasibility of these strategies

The context

The structural challenges and shocks Europe has experienced over the past 15 years are not isolated events, but part of a transformative phase of European society:

• Aligning our development model with the carrying capacity of the ecosystem we live in
• Demographic trends, labor market transformations, and digitalization
• Current geopolitical shocks and various crises of the last fifteen years
• The rise of right-wing movements and the new European parliament

In this context, while one line of studies focuses on measuring performance (which changes, directions, etc.), SWINS is part of a line of studies aimed more at guiding this process and the decisions of policymakers (i.e., where do I allocate my resources? Which policies yield the most? Which are the most sustainable?). The perspective of Social Services as Social Investment is thus useful for framing social spending among the various tools available to policymakers to support the transition.

The sustainability of Welfare is indeed a central debate that remains somewhat parallel to that on the Transition and has not found solutions in the review of the Economic Governance Framework and especially the Fiscal Framework. An attempt was made to establish a Golden Rule for social investment, but it is not a viable path. Therefore, it becomes growingly important to find a way to measure the economic and social return of social services.

SWINS takes up the challenge to operationalize a “rights-based social investment paradigm” which transcends the focus on income- and employment-related returns by integrating a broader perspective that includes ecological sustainability and sustainable human development, emphasizing a just transition approach. It conceptualizes and measures this paradigm in social services as a tool to foster the EU’s resilience and sustainable wellbeing. Additionally, SWINS prioritizes the integration of this measurement framework into institutional, regulatory, and policy contexts, situating it within the broader sustainability transition needed to address the social, environmental, and economic challenges of recent decades.

Partners