Social investment as a common language

An important advantage of the social investment perspective is that it provides a common language for discussing the link between economic and social development across the twenty-seven Member States of the EU. Social investment policy can be contextualized to different national contexts, applicable to countries at different levels of prosperity, and also to various welfare regime architectures, ranging from highly developed universal welfare systems to less developed, more family-based and private regimes, which are now faced with a need to build more robust and equitable systems to mitigate old and new social risks. Throughout, the social investment perspective plays close attention to links between economic, social, and family development across the life course, and asks that close attention be paid to specific economic structures and social deficits in each country. In each case, this will involve different combinations of integrated policy reforms in income support, social services, and public regulation to address new needs.