Ultimately, social policy is concerned with questions of human life, i.e., good life, and consequently, with questions of good society and a good world, as well as with social values and ethics. Social policy is also practice. In this system, the state is the most important actor practising social policy. The international economy requires that the labour force be flexible and adaptable. The impact of the European Union on the lives of the citizens of EU countries is significant.
Internationalisation also increases the possibilities that people have.
Social policy is interested not merely in national social issues , but also increasingly, in international phenomena of social policy. As a consequence of the rapidly developing information society, social policy is today facing new problems. At the University of Tampere, the focus of Social Policy as an academic subject lies on the new forms of the welfare state, on work and employment, including the unpaid and unseen care work, as well as on housing and urban environment. The all-pervading orientation of the studies is internationality, specifically Europe and comparative approach. The department has a separate unit called the Unit for Research into Housing and Environment .