Fifteen Years with the Norma Research Programme

Mia Rönnmar, Lund University

Abstract

The Norma Research Programme started out fifteen years ago – in 1996 – at the Law Faculty of Lund University with funding from the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. The programme was initiated by me and my former colleague Professor Anna Christensen, who sadly passed away in March 2001. Norma is short for ‘Normative Development within the Social Dimension, Studies on the Normative Patterns and Their Development in the Legal Regulation of Employment, Housing, Family and Social Security from a European Integration Perspective’. The purpose of the programme was to create a research environment where basic normative patterns and their development and relationship to the ongoing changes in society within the area of the Social Dimension in Europe could be studied in depth and from a long-term perspective. The research is conducted within a multi-disciplinary legal science framework, including a labour law, social security law, family law, competition law, Union law and comparative law approach, also encompassing legal theory. Furthermore, the programme draws upon a common body of economic and sociological research. As regards current research within the programme, focus can now be said to be on the interaction between changing labour market conditions, ‘sustainable’ social security schemes and new – more flexible – family patterns.