As we enter the 21st century, how will Canadians generate and share well being? What combination of public policy, private provision, community and family responsibility will ensure that Canada remains a just, prosperous and caring society? These are the big questions posed by the Family Network's major new research program on Canada's changing social architecture.

Over the last decade, Canadian policy makers have responded to new challenges, such as restructured labour markets, deepening poverty, income polarization, demographic changes, and the imperatives of the knowledge economy. In the process, the cornerstones of the post-1945 social policy consensus - social protection, labour market programs, pensions, and health care - have all come under public scrutiny. Today there is a growing demand to rethink the design of Canadian social policy.

Reshaping Canada's social architecture requires Canadians to think again about how we define common citizenship, and how we generate and distribute well being. The Family Network is exploring these issues using the notion of a "welfare diamond" as a conceptual tool to identify and make sense of the best policy mix to underpin Canada's social architecture in the 21st century.

Click here for a short description of the Social Architecture Papers.
Click here for a list of publications in this series.