About FISS
Established in May 1987, FISS is an independent, non-profit association that aims to promote international, multidisciplinary research on social security, including its relationships with other aspects of society (such as the labour market, unemployment, poverty, income redistribution, savings, housing, the family, health and well-being).
“Social security is here taken as encompassing all collective (public, semi-public and private) programmes for transfer of income in cash or in kind to consumer households. Only with such a broad definition is international comparison and cross-country analysis possible. FISS intends to create an independent, multidisciplinary, international academic community of those working on the relationship between social security and other aspects of society (like poverty and income distribution, labour market, health and disability, saving behaviour, etc.). Policy relevance of the studies will be, given the area of study, kept in mind” (Atkinson and Emanuel, Preface to Atkinson and Rein (eds.) Age, Work and Social Security, 1993)
FISS has been pursuing its aim by organizing scientific seminars and conferences and by publishing books.
‘…the Sigtuna seminars … bring together scholars and researchers from all over the world .. To present and discuss findings on the economic, legal and social aspects of social security and its relationships with other aspects of society … Young scholars are able to discuss their findings with experienced research workers. An increasing number of social security administrators and government representatives attend to listen and participate’ (Stein Ringen, Preface to FISS Volume 7, 2001)
FISS is managed on a day to day basis by the Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy of the University of Antwerp.
FISS is a registered Charity in the Netherlands.
Board of Governors
The Foundation for International Studies on Social Security is overseen by an international board of Governors.
Bea Cantillon
FISS Secretary General
Professor of Sociology at the Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
Kenneth Nelson
Barnett Professor of Social Policy at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI), University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
Aya K. Abe
Professor of Social Policy, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan.
Wim Van Lancker
FISS Treasurer
Assistant Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at the Centre for Sociological Research, University of Leuven, Belgium.
Hung Wong
Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.
Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak
Vice-Rector for Science and Director of the Institute of Statistics and Demography of the Warsaw School of Economics, Poland.
Koen Caminada
Professor of Empirical Analysis of Tax and Social Policy Law School at Leiden University, the Netherlands.
Julia Shu-Huah Wang
Associate Professor Social Policy, Department of Social Work, National Taiwan University.
Zachary Parolin
Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at Bocconi University in Milan and a Senior Fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy.
Agnieszka Nelson
Sir Roland Wilson Foundation PhD Scholar
Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, Australia.
Inhoe Ku
Department of Social Welfare, Seoul National University, Korea.
Janet Gornick
Professor of Political Science and Sociology
Director of the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USA.
Rense Nieuwenhuis
Associate Professor in Sociology at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at Stockholm University, Sweden.
Peter Saunders
Research Professor in Social Policy
Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
History of FISS
Timeline
Establishment of the Foundation for International Studies on Social Security seated in The Hague. Key role for founding member Harry Emanuel (University of Leiden, Netherlands).
Compostion of the first Board of Governors:
- Martin Rein (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
- Jacques Allegro (University of Leiden, Netherlands)
- Jos Berghman (Tilburg University, Netherlands)
- Monroe Berkowitz (Rutgers University, USA)
- Tor Eiler Eriksen (Swedish Social Insurance Agency)
- Engelbertus Pieter de Jong (VU Amsterdam, Netherlands)
- Esko Antero Kalimo (Social Insurance Institution, Finland)
- Martin Pfaff (Augsburg University, Germany)
- Peter Zweifel (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
- Harry Emanuel (University of Leiden, Netherlands)
- First FISS conference on ‘Age, Work and Social Security’ organised with the Centre for Population, Poverty and Policy Studies (CEPS) in Luxembourg. Around 50 participants; selected papers published by Macmillan in volume edited by Tony Atkinson and Martin Rein in 1993
- Second FISS conference on ‘Social Security and Health Care’ planned/held (?) in Zurich, Switzerland
Sir Tony Atkinson, CBE, OBE appointed President of FISS. Brian Abel-Smith joinst the board.
FISS involved in the organisation of the ‘Social Security: 50 Years After Beveridge’ conference held in York, England in 1992.
- First FISS conference held in Sigtuna, Sweden (at Sigtunahöjden).
- Stein Kuhnle becomes FISS president.
FISS conference on ‘Curing the Dutch Disease: An International Perspective on Disability Policy Reform’ held in Rotterdam. Proceedings published by Ashgate as Volume 1 in the FISS International Studies on Social Security in 1996
Jonathan Bradshaw joins the FISS board.
Sir Ian Byatt joins the FISS board.
Peter Kemp becomes Treasurer of FISS. Bea Cantillon becomes Chairperson.
- Last volume in the International Studies on Social Security (volume 16) published
- FISS Board of Governors expanded
- FISS/Intersentia Best paper Prize introduced. The paper ‘should involve comparison within Europe or between Europe and elsewhere and/or have an EU dimension and/or be of theoretical or general significance’.
"FISS Conference home" Sigtunahöjden conference centre destroyed in fire, FISS 2014 takes place in Sigtuna Brannbö, Sweden
FISS conference held in Hong Kong, with sponsorship from the Chinese University of Hong Kong
The 25th Anniversary FISS conference was held in Sigtuna from Monday June 4th until Wednesday June 6th 2018
The 17th Annual Conference of the East Asian Social Policy Research Network & The 27th Annual Conference of the Foundation for International Studies on Social Security, a joint confercence of EASP and FISS was to be held in Lingnan University, Hong Kong.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was held online instead.
The 20th Annual Conference of the East Asian Social Policy Research Network & the 30th Annual Conference of the Foundation for International Studies on Social Security, a joint conference of EASP and FISS was held in the Kyoto International Conference Center, Kyoto, Japan from June 13th until June 14 2024.