IASQ Working Paper 18, written by Peter Herrmann, argues that the so-called transformation of the countries of Eastern Europe could actually not happen due to the fact that the politics and policies of designing societal development started from misleading suppositions. It is suggested that social quality thinking, if it wants to be relevant in assessing major historical shifts has to find a way of thoroughly including a historical perspective. This means not least to consider two strands influencing the development: the first is the meaning and effect of long-term processes, meaningful for the establishment of specific national and/or regional identities. The second aspect is given by the necessity to assess social quality in the context of international comparison always is a matter of relationality, i,e. here a matter of what is going on between countries. Following this through, the foundation is laid for some far-reaching challenges for the social quality approach.
You can read and download the working paper here.