The yearbook Comparative Social Research aims at furthering the international orientation in the social sciences. Each volume is concentrated on a specific topic, mostly of substantive, but also of methodological character. As a rule, the articles present two or more cases for comparison, be they nations, regions, organizations, or social units at different points of time. The volumes embrace a broad set topics, such as comparative studies of universities as institutions for production and diffusion of knowledge; family policies; regional cultures; and institutional aspects of work and wage formation. Comparative Social Research seeks well-written articles that place the current or historical data in context, critically review the literature of comparative studies, or provide new theoretical or methodological insights. The series recognizes that comparative research is theoretically and methodologically interdisciplinary, and encourages and supports there trends. All papers will be subject to double-blind peer review.

Governments have had a longstanding interest in family forms and the behaviour of family members, although their goals and instruments have differed over time and across countries. This timely collection brings together seminal contributions focusing on a number of important topics relating to this field. This research review focuses on the origins and social foundations of family policies, their main actors and drivers; together with consideration of crucial concepts and themes, including gender, intergenerational obligations and care and also deals with the various areas and goals addressed by family policies and their diversity across countries: the politics of reproduction; support for children, policies to reconcile paid work and family obligations; parenthood policies; patterns of care policies and domestic violence. This important title will be of immense value to those working in the field of families and family policies and will be an excellent source of reference to both students and academics.

This volume represents the present state of theoretical debate in welfare state scholarship, drawing on research from western Europe, North America and Japan. It therefore provides a valuable balance of breadth and detail from the broad international overview to comparisons between specific welfare states and national case studies.

Contents:
Introduction: Gender, welfare state and the market: towards a new division of labour? Thomas P. Boje and Arnlaug Leira
Section 1: Women's Employment and Welfare Systems
1. Paid work, unpaid work and welfare: towards a framework for studying welfare state variation Mary Daly
2. Citizenship, family policy and women's pattern of employment Thomas P. Boje and Anna-Lena Almqvist
3. Variation within post-fordist and liberal welfare state countries, women's work and social rights in Canada and the United States Cecilia Benoit
4. Family policy and mothers' employment: cross-national varitions Janet Gornick
Section II. Family Policy - Work and Care in Different Welfare Systems
5. Gendered Policies: family obligations and social policies in Europe Chiara Saraceno
6. Combining work and family: Nordic policy reforms in the 1990s Arnlaug Leira
7. Child care policies in Japan: post-war developments and recent reforms Ito Peng
8. Changing obligations and expectations: lone parenthood and social policy Jane Millar
9. Solo mothers - how do they work and care in different welfare state regimes? Jørgen Elm Larsen
10. Labour, gender, and the state Evelyn Mahon

Demographic and societal changes are strongly affecting the contexts of childhood and the experience of being children. At the same time, across social groups and across societies, diversities and inequalities in childhood are taking new forms. In the developed world, in particular, children their number, their welfare, their education, the division of power and responsibilities over them among the different social actors have entered the public agenda, at the national and supranational level. Public concern over issues such as fertility rates, mothers working, early childhood education and care as well as solemn international declarations of childrens rights are examples of the ongoing politicization of childhood. Drawing both on micro and macro, national and comparative studies, this volume of Comparative Social Research traces some of the trends and analyses in comparative perspective how they affect images and practices of childhood and transforms responsibilities for children. The volume's focus is mainly on children in the developed countries, but attention is also paid to transnational diversities and to the impact of globalisation through the experiences of migrant children and of children living through the processes of modernisation in the developing world.
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* A comparative look at the experience of childhood
* Contributions from an international group of leading researchers

This is a collectively written, inter-disciplinary, thematic cross-national study which combines conceptual, theoretical, empirical and policy material in an ambitious and innovative way to explore a key concept in contemporary European political, policy and academic debates. The first part of the book clarifies the various ways that the concept of citizenship has developed historically and is understood today in a range of Western European welfare states. It elaborates on the contemporary framing of debates and struggles around citizenship. This provides a framework for three policy studies, looking at: migration and multiculturalism; the care of young children; and home-based childcare and transnational dynamics. The book is unusual in weaving together the topics of migration and childcare and in studying these issues together within a gendered citizenship framework. It also demonstrates the value of a multi-level conceptualisation of citizenship, stretching from the domestic sphere through the national and European levels to the global. The book is aimed at students of social policy, sociology, European studies, women's studies and politics and at researchers/scholars/policy analysts in the areas of citizenship, gender, welfare states and migration.

How to respond to the needs of working parents has become a pressing social policy issue in contemporary Western Europe. This book highlights the politicising of parenthood in the Scandinavian welfare states - focusing on the relationship between parents and the state, and the ongoing renegotiations between the public and the private. Drawing on new empirical research, leading Scandinavian academics provide an up-to-date record and critical synthesis of Nordic work-family reforms since the 1990s. A broad range of policies targeting working parents is examined including: the expansion of childcare services as a social right; parental leave; cash benefits for childcare; and working hours regulations. The book also explores policy discourses, scrutinises outcomes, and highlights the similarities and differences between Nordic countries through analyses of comparative statistical data and national case studies. Set in the context of economic restructuring and the growing influence of neo-liberal ideology, each chapter addresses concerns about the impact of policies on the gender relations of parenthood. "Politicising parenthood in Scandinavia" is a timely contribution to ongoing policy debates on welfare state models, parenthood and gender equality. It will be of particular interest to students and teachers of welfare studies, family policy and gender studies.

The mass entry of women into the labour market, the decline of the male breadwinner norm and the rise of the dual-earner family have all profoundly transformed the societies of the Western industrialised world. This book argues that childcare has become increasingly 'defamilised' or collectivised as mothers have joined the labour market, causing significant impact on welfare policies. As a result, the complex relationship between family change and policy reform calls for a rethinking of the relationship between the welfare state, labour markets and working parents. Rather than concentrating on the changing models of motherhood, Leira advocates the need to consider the effects of the gendered division of work and welfare on fathers' opportunities to be supported as carers for children. Her analysis incorporates important new empirical data from Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

What is the relationship between women and the welfare state? How do women reconcile paid work and family responsibilities? These questions are of central political concern to nearly all Western industrialised countries and have provoked considerable scholarly disagreement. In this timely book, Dr Arnlaug Leira presents both a theoretical and an empirical analysis of the relationship between women's lives, employment practices and childcare provision. Focusing upon the social construction of motherhood in Scandinavia, Arnlaug Leira shows how, contrary to common perceptions, there is no shared model of welfare policies and women's work. Instead, the position in Norway is significantly different from that in Sweden and Denmark. The author then presents an ethnographic analysis of the lives of working mothers in Norway. She details the complexity of the strategies by which women cope and support one another in combined earning and childcare in a situation where state provision is limited. Welfare States and Working Mothers will be widely read by students and specialists of sociology, social policy and administration, political science and women's studies. It will also be of interest to policy makers, social workers, teachers and nursery-school workers.

The mass entry of women into the labor market, the decline of the male breadwinner norm and the rise of the dual-earner family have all profoundly transformed the societies of the Western industrialized world. This book argues that childcare has become increasingly "defamilized" or collectivized as mothers have joined the labor market, causing significant impact on welfare policies. As a result, the complex relationship between family change and policy reform calls for a rethinking of the relationship between the welfare state, labor markets and working parents. Rather than concentrating on the changing models of motherhood, Leira advocates the need to consider the effects of the gendered division of work and welfare on fathers' opportunities to be supported as carers for children.

Demographic and societal changes are strongly affecting the contexts of childhood and the experience of being children. At the same time, across social groups and across societies, diversities and inequalities in childhood are taking new forms. In the developed world, in particular, children their number, their welfare, their education, the division of power and responsibilities over them among the different social actors have entered the public agenda, at the national and supranational level. Public concern over issues such as fertility rates, mothers working, early childhood education and care as well as solemn international declarations of children's rights are examples of the ongoing politicization of childhood. Drawing both on micro and macro, national and comparative studies, this volume of "Comparative Social Research" traces some of the trends and analyzes in comparative perspective how they affect images and practices of childhood and transforms responsibilities for children. The volume's focus is mainly on children in the developed countries, but attention is also paid to transnational diversities and to the impact of globalisation through the experiences of migrant children and of children living through the processes of modernization in the developing world.