The objectives of this project are to compare the restructuring of social policy in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Denmark, France and the UK, focusing on the issue of employment. It will complement existing funded projects on: housing and environmental movements in Russia, Estonia, and Hungary; the European Community and social policy in Denmark, as well as France and the United Kingdom.

(Un)employment is a common and difficult problem both in the European Union and in eastern Europe. However, the problem is perceived differently by policy-makers, interest groups and households. New data will be collected through repeated interviews over time with politicians, policy-makers, employers, trade unions, and households. Interviews will be undertaken by local teams with a centrally developed methodology and interview schedule subject to local team approval. There will be an annual review through workshops, and final dissemination through joint publication.

The specific activities for Russia include: monitoring, description, and analysis of the development of social policy in the period of transition; identification and explanation of the emergence of debates about a social policy regime types up to 1997 by using changes in employment policy and social security for the unemployed as a tracer to examine compensation for those who are bearing the social costs of the transition period; testing of the applicability in east Europe of western explanations for the development of social policy regime types; and contribution to both theory and methods in comparative social research, and development of a database for the future study of social policy in Russia.