Families and Family Policies in Europe

Comparative family policy studies have flourished in recent years. The growing recognition of family policy is related to far-reaching changes in family structures since the mid-1960s and to the growth of European welfare states to fiscal and institutional limits. With recent welfare state reforms, the family, gender roles, and the social division of labour have become prominent issues. This book contributes to comparative family policy studies by a distinct profile. Contributions typically include a small number of countries. The geographic focus is on Southern European and Scandinavian countries, including comparisons to Austria, Belgium, Britain, Germany, Ireland, and The Netherlands. The book combines quantitative and qualitative approaches, institutional and historical perspectives.

Autorentext

The Editors: Thomas Bahle, lecturer in sociology at the University of Mannheim (Germany) and Astrid Pfenning, sociologist, researcher at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research, have been managers of the TMR programme `Family and Welfare State in Europe .

Inhalt

Contents: Thomas Bahle/Astrid Pfenning: Introduction - Lluís Flaquer: Is there a Southern European model of family policy? - Monica P. Carlos/Laura Maratou-Alipranti: Family policy and new family forms: The cases of Greece and Portugal - Monica P. Carlos: The politics of family policies: Greece, Spain, and Portugal compared - Manuela Naldini: Family allowances in Italy and Spain: Long ways to reform - Bent Greve: Family policy in the Nordic countries - Gudny Björk Eydal: Nordic child-care policies and the case of Iceland - Doris Weiss: The European Union and the family: Law and Policy - Eriikka Oinonen: Finnish and Spanish family institutions: Similarities and differences - Esther Fernández Mostaza: Religion and modernity in Spain over the last forty years - Sarah Grattan: Women, work, and family: Ireland and The Netherlands - Eva Sundström: Gender attitudes towards female employment in Germany, Italy, and Sweden - Elisabetta Ruspini: Lone mothers' poverty in Europe: The cases of Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Sweden - Claudia Gardberg Morner: Subsistence in an ambivalent welfare state. On lone mothers in Italy - Wendy Sims-Schouten: Child care services and parents' attitudes in England, Finland, and Greece - Bente Nicolaysen: The kindergarten movement in Norway in historical-comparative perspective - Birgit Fix: Church-state relations and the development of child care in Austria, Belgium, Germany, and The Netherlands - Claus Wendt: Competition and co-operation in child health care in Germany, Austria, Great Britain, and Denmark - Helena Laaksonen: The welfare of young adults in Europe between work, family, and state.