The Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) is a multi-dimensional challenge for policy-makers, as well as social actors, researchers and other players. The aim of Building Social Europe through the Open Method of Co-ordination is to describe the role of the OMC as an instrument for the governance of Europe’s social dimension from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The underlying issues addressed concern its potential as an instrument of Europeanisation, as well as how the Member States influence EU policy formation. The complexities of national policy-making processes in the area of employment are scrutinised by researchers from different EU countries who seek to understand how, if at all, OMC employment is integrated into Member States’ policies. Furthermore, the complex adaptational pressures of the EU on the reform of national public pension schemes (the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Italy) are analysed. The editors devote their efforts to understanding the national-European dynamics of OMC in the areas of employment, social exclusion and pensions. The book is a first step towards a theoretical framework that explains the dynamics of OMC.

The Editors: Caroline de la Porte is a sociologist and a researcher at the Observatoire social européen and is particularly interested in the OMC, Social Europe, and the social dimension of enlargement. Philippe Pochet is the director of the Observatoire social européen, Digest Editor of the Journal of European Social Policy, affiliate at the Centre of European Studies (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and invited lecturer at the Université catholique de Louvain. He has published widely on the social dimension of the European Union.