The research project “Managing Social Risks through Transitional Labour Markets” (tlm.net) was co-financed by the 5th framework programme of the European Union. It was jointly co-ordinated by SISWO (Social Policy Research Amsterdam, Drs. Nick van den Heuvel) and the WZB (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Dr. Klaus Schömann). The transitional labour market concept (Schmid 1998) is complemented by a life course perspective reaching from education to work transitions to retirement transitions and the policy oriented perspective of improving the work-life balance.

The network addressed the basic transformation of our European social and economic systems caused by globalisation, modernisation, individualisation or the shift towards the knowledge-based society. The change in the nature of social risks was one of the focal points of the project. The decline of ‘old risks’, inherent to an industrial society, and the advent of ‘new social risks’, such as life course risks or intergenerational risks, were common points of departure for the European research network. Results of the network deal with labour market processes and policy implementation.

The tlm.net evidence supports a shift from active to a mix between active and activating social and labour market policies, involving a change of focus from job and income security to employment and transition security, and from the traditional unemployment insurance to employment insurance arrangements. This implies a new balance of responsibility for managing social risks between the collective and the individual level. Targeting policy and benefits to those most in need ensures the sustainability of social systems at times of financial pressure through population ageing. Successful policies are decentralised in their design and implementation, closest to the local context and target groups, and which involve to a greater extent the social partners at all stages of the process. Making transitions pay and enabling everyone to make the transitions that fit their choices best is a generally shared policy conclusion from the network. Lifelong learning is also a major component of the strategy to deal with the risk of social exclusion, reflecting the understanding of the prevailing need to invest in learning to remain employable on the individual level. Lifelong learning can serve as a sort of insurance against the risk of unemployment.
 
The TLM-enabled welfare state can be described as possessing three main characteristics: strong equal opportunity policies, investment in human capital throughout the life course, and a good degree of activation of social policies to fight social exclusion. While removing institutional barriers such as the male breadwinner model is crucial, policies cannot be effective in encouraging a more equal division of labour until the gender wage gap is redeemed. Some countries have provided excellent examples of how a coordinated and coherent policy (e.g. combining flexibility and security to flexicurity) together with a readjustment of institutions and social norms can serve to produce good results in the long term to make a reformed European Social Model sustainable.