Welcome to UP2YOUTH: Youth - actor of social change

Section

Indications of contents

Institution

Research Institute for the Quality of Life

Person(s)

Prof. dr. Catalin Zamfir - director

Prof. dr. Ioan Marginean - deputy director

Location: City/Country

Bucharest, Romania

Website: www.iccv.ro

Main theme

1) Civic participation

2) Young parenthood

3) Transition of young people with an ethnic minority or immigrant background

Keywords area of work

(10 max)

Social policies, social development, social innovation, quality of life, poverty, at-risk social groups, living standard, social and symbolic capital, European values.

Brief description of institution (250 words max)

The Research Institute for the Quality of Life was founded in January 1990, as part of the National Institute for Economic Research, under the aegis of the Romanian Academy of Sciences. Its goal was to cover research areas of interest in the context of the political, economic, and social transition after 1989: social policies and the quality of life.

Over time, the institute has accumulated expertise in these two areas of research, but also in related areas such as social development, at-risk social groups, poverty studies, consumption, social values, rural and urban development, and other areas as well. Now, the institute has an interdisciplinary profile, and researchers at the institute specialize in various socio-economic areas of research: sociology, social work, economy, public administration, psychology, political science.

Besides its commitment to fundamental scientific research, RIQL has also taken over the responsibility of actively contributing to the development of the Romanian society, by providing specialized consulting services to political actors. RIQL has also contributed to institutional development in Romania and to elaboration of legislation in the social domain.

Running projects

Title, Main theme, Cooperation, Duration

Romanian Social Data Archive (RODA), which is affiliated to the Council of European Social Science Data Archives and to the International Federation of Data Organizations - running, in partnership with the University of Bucharest

Diagnosis of the quality of life - analysis of the evolution of quality of life on its various components or dimensions: the influences of changes in the natural, social, economic and political environment, characteristics of family life, employment, work, unemployment, social services - almost yearly

Human community development - analyses regarding differences in living standards and living conditions between urban and rural areas, among regions, at the level of certain types of localities, or among areas within localities (i.e. peripheral neighbourhoods, ghetto-type poor areas, "pockets of poverty", a.s.o. );  identification of causes and effects of social pathologies, which substantially diminish the social quality of neighbourhoods and communities: social exclusion, phenomena of social disaggregation, discrimination, a.s.o.; study of underprivileged social groups (in poor rural areas, peripheral neighbourhoods in large cities, homeless people, a.s.o.) - their problems related to dwelling (dwelling conditions and access to dwelling), services and infrastructure - running

Relevant Publications

Quality of Life Journal - Since its founding, the Research Institute for Quality of Life has published the Quality of Life Journal, a scientific journal devoted to social policy analyses. The articles published in the Quality of Life Journal since 1999 are available online (free of charge) on the review's web page http://www.revistacalitateavietii.ro/. On the institute's web page there are also available other publications of RIQL's researchers, including books, research reports, and working papers.

The Roma between wariness and unknowingness (1994, Catalin Zamfir - coord.)

The Roma in Romania (2002, Catalin Zamfir and Marian Preda - coord.)