This paper sets out to achieve three aims. First of all it provides a basic introduction to the concept of social quality. This includes an outline of its architecture-constitutional, conditional and normative factors — and of the four key impulses that led to its development: ontological, methodological, sociological and normative. Then, secondly, it compares the East Asian and European social
... [Show full abstract] models. Although such summary accounts risk over-simplification, this section is critical to gain a broad understanding of the similarities and differences and prepare for the third and final part. Thus the third aim is to begin a discussion of how the European social quality approach might be applied to East Asia. The paper does so by working through the social quality architecture outlined earlier. The paper ends with a discussion of the role of political ideology in shaping stereotypes about Asia and Europe.