Astrid Pfenning, Thomas Bahle (eds.)
	Families and Family Policies in Europe
	Comparative Perspectives
	359 S., Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, 2000
	ISBN 3-631-37078-4

Abstract

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 comparisions to Austria, Belgium, Britain, Germany, Ireland and The Netherlands. The book combines quantitative and qualitative approaches, institutional and historical perspectives.

Table of Contents:

The authors:

Thomas Bahle, Dr., lecturer in Sociology at the University of Mannheim (Germany) and researcher at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research; with P. Flora coordinator of TMR programme ‘Family and Welfare State in Europe’. Research topics include welfare state, family policy, and social services in comparative perspective. Publications include book Familienpolitik in Westeuropa (Family policy in Western Europe, 1995) and article The family dimension of the welfare state in Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany in H.J. Schulze, ed. (2000) ‘Stability and Complexity. Perspectives for a Child-Oriented Family Policy’.

Monica P. Carlos, Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Political Science, University of Athens, M.Sc. in Management and Policy from the State University of New York, M.A. in Political Science from Columbia University, Bachelor in Law from the University of Lisbon; since October 1998 young researcher in the TMR programme ‘Family and Welfare State in Europe’. Research interests include political conditions of social policy advocacy, political cost/benefit analysis of policy alternatives, party governments and welfare reform, two-way effects of party competition and policy choices, bureaucratic institutions, political accountability and policy responsiveness.

Gudny Björk Eydal, Assistant Professor of Social Work, University of Iceland, and Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Sociology, Göteborg University; B.A. in Sociology and Certificate of Qualification in Social Work, International Master of Science in Social Work. Research topics include development and institutionalization of family policy in Iceland, social policy and social services. Publications include article together with U. Björnberg Defining family obligations in Sweden in J. Millar and A. Warman, eds. (1995) ‘Defining Family Obligations in Europe’ and article together with I. Broddadottir, S. Hrafnsdottir and S. H. Sigurdardottir The development of local authority social services in Iceland in J. Sipilä, ed. (1997) ‘Social Care Services: The Key to the Scandinavian Welfare Model’.

Esther Fernández Mostaza, Ph.D. in Sociology; lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; 1997–99 TMR programme ‘Family and Welfare State in Europe’ with research stays at the Universities of Turin, Tampere (Finland) and Amsterdam. Present research focuses on family issues. Publications include book Els Fills de l’Opus (The Children of Opus, 1998) and article A characterization of the Opus Dei family model (forthcoming in ‘Social Compass’, 2001).

Birgit Fix, M.A. in Political Science, Sociology and Modern History, researcher at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (Germany); Ph.D. thesis on the institutionalization of family policy in historical-comparative perspective. Research interests include comparative analysis of welfare states, socioloy of the family and religion. Publications include working paper The institutionalization of family welfare: The social division of labour in the field of child care in Austria and Germany (MZES, no. 24, 1998).

Lluís Flaquer, Professor of Sociology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; 1974–78 lecturer in Sociology and Anthropology at the Universities of Lancas-ter and East Anglia (Great Britain), Ph.D. in Law at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (1981). Current research topics include the changing structure of the Spanish family, new family forms, family policy and individualization. Recent publications include books El destino de la familia (The Destiny of the Family, 1998), La estrella menguante del padre (The Fading Father, 1999) and Las políticas comparadas en una perspectiva comparada (Family Policies in a Comparative Perspective, 2000).

Claudia Gardberg Morner, Ph.D. candidate and research assistant at the Department of Sociology, Göteborg University (Sweden); B.A. in Political Science, M.A. in Sociology. Research interests include welfare systems, labour market and family changes from a gender perspective, processes of marginalisation/exclusion, urban poverty, subsistence strategies, atypical labour, and informal economy.

Sarah Grattan, M.Soc.Sc., researcher at the Department of Social and Political Sciences, European University Institute (Florence), formerly researcher on the TMR programme ‘Family and Welfare State in Europe’ and researcher at the Family Studies Centre, University College Dublin. Research interests include social policies, labour force participation and welfare states, on which she is currently undertaking research in view of obtaining a Ph.D.

Bent Greve, Jean Monnet Professor and Head of Social Sciences Department, Roskilde University (Denmark); Ph.D. in Public Administration, M.A. in Economics. Research interests include comparative welfare state analysis, social and labour market policy and financing of the welfare state. Publications include edited books Comparative Welfare Systems (1996) and What Constitutes a Good Society? (2000).

Helena Laaksonen, M.A. in Sociology, research fellow at the Department of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Tampere (Finland). Research interests include welfare state analysis, youth transitions, citizenship, and social exclusion. Publications include article Suomalaisen yhteiskunnan uusjako (The new division of the Finnish society) in R. Blom, ed. (2000) ‘Mikä Suomessa muuttui? Sosiologinen kuva 1990-luvusta’ (What Changed in Finland? A Sociological View on the 1990s) and working paper Young adults in changing welfare states. Prolonged transitions and delayed entries for under-30s in Finland, Sweden and Germany in the ’90s (MZES, no. 12, 2000).

Manuela Naldini, Ph.D. in Political and Social Sciences; researcher at Social Sciences Department, University of Turin. Research interests include comparative social policy and family policy, sociology of the family and gender studies. Publications include edited volume together with M.J. Gonzalez and T. Jurado Gender Inequalities in Southern Europe (2000) and article Le politiche a sostegno delle responsabilità familiari nei casi storici italiano e spagnolo (State policies towards family responsibilities in the Italian and Spanish historical cases, Inchiesta, no. 128, 2000).

Laura Maratou-Alipranti, Ph.D. in Sociology, senior researcher and head of Publication and Scientific Information Department at the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE) in Athens; Greek representative of the European Commission Network of National Civil Servants on ‘Women and Science’. Research interests include family studies, gender relations, family policy, migration, and social exlusion. Publications include book The Family in Athens. Family Models and Patterns of Life of Athenian Couples (1999, 2nd ed.), edited book together with D. Karantinos and E. Fronimou Dimensions of Social Exclusion in Greece: Main Trends and Policy Priorities (1999, 2nd. ed.), and article together with R. Fakiolas Foreign female immigrants in Greece (Revista de Sociologia, no. 60, 2000).

Bente Blanche Nicolaysen, M.Litt. in Sociology (University of Oxford 1998), Master of Political Science (University of Oslo 1993), 1995–97 research assistant at NOVA (Norwegian Social Research Institute), 1997–99 researcher at Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona in TMR programme ‘Family and Welfare State in Europe’. Research interests focus on voluntary social work, family policy, sociological theories of voluntary organisations and civil society. Is currently working on a doctoral project on voluntary social work at the Department of Sociology, University of Bergen.

Eriikka Oinonen, Master of Social Sciences, researcher at the Department of Sociology and Social Psychology at the University of Tampere (Finland); studies in sociology, social anthropology, social psychology and women’s studies. Research interests include cultural and historical construction of family institutions and gender relations, comparative qualitative research, Spanish culture and society. Publications include article Perheet ja pärjääminen (Families and coping strategies) in R. Blom, ed. (2000) ‘Mikä Suomessa muuttui? Sosiologinen kuva 1990-luvusta’ (What Changed in Finland? A Sociological View on the 1990s) and working paper Nations’ different families? Contrasting comparison of Finnish and Spanish ‘ideological families’ (MZES, no. 15, 2000).

Astrid Pfenning, Sociologist, researcher at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (Germany), manager of TMR programme ‘Family and Welfare State in Europe’. Research interests include social network analysis, comparative social research, social policy and social services. Publications on methodology of social network analysis (together with P. Mohler, and U. Pfenning); report, together with Th. Bahle and P. Flora, ‘Organisationsformen sozialer Dienste in Europa’ (Organisation of social services in European countries, 1999).

Elisabetta Ruspini, Professor of Sociology of the Family at the University of Padova (annual appointment); Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Research; post-doctoral research at the Department of Sociology (University of Padova) on the gender dimension of poverty dynamics in Europe, post-doctoral fellowships at the European Centre for Analysis in the Social Sciences, the University of Essex (1997) and the TMR ‘Family and Welfare State in Europe’ (1998). Research interests include gender issues, comparative welfare research, social and family policies, poverty, living conditions, dependency, allocation of resources within the family, and social change. Methodologically, main interests are longitudinal data analysis, comparability, design and collection of complex data sets such as household panel surveys. Publications include various articles and conference papers.

Wendy Sims-Schouten, Masters in Social Research (University of Bath, UK), first degree in Pedagogics at the Free University of Amsterdam, currently embarking on a Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Bath. Research interests include children and moral reasoning, quantitative and qualitative methods, childcare, parenting, child development and childhood.

Eva Sundström, Ph.D. candidate at Department of Sociology, Umeå University (Sweden); thesis on attitudes towards family, changing gender relations and social policies in comparative perspective; 1998–99 visiting scholar at Department of Sociology at the University of Padova (Italy). Publications include article Bör kvinnor förvärvsarbeta? Attityder till kvinnors förvärvsarbete i Sverige, Tyskland och Italien (Should women work? Attitudes towards female employment in Sweden, Germany and Italy) in G. Ahrne and I. Persson, eds. (1997) ‘Familj, makt och jämställdhet’ (Family, power and gender equality) and article Should mothers work? Age and attitudes in Germany, Italy and Sweden (International Journal of Social Welfare, 1999).

Doris Weiss, Ph.D., researcher at the Institute for the Sociology of Law and Criminal Sociology in Vienna, University Lecturer at the Universities of Vienna and Linz; studies in Political Science and History. Research interests include European law and policy, new forms of labour and working time, gender issues. Publications include article Integration und Ausgrenzung: Widersprüche im europäischen Einigungsprozess (Integration and exclusion: contradictions in the process of European unification) in A. Pilgram and H. Steinert, eds. (2000) ‘Sozialer Ausschluss. Begriffe, Praktiken und Gegenwehr’ (Social exclusion. Concepts, practices and coping strategies), Jahrbuch für Rechts- und Kriminalsoziologie (Yearbook for sociology of law and criminal sociology).

Claus Wendt, M.A. in Political Science, Sociology, and Economics; Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Sociology, Heidelberg University; thesis on health care systems in Germany, Austria, Great Britain and Denmark. Research interests focus on welfare states in comparative perspective, health policy, family policy, educational policy. Publications include article Gesundheitsleistungen für Kinder in Deutschland, Österreich, Großbritannien und Dänemark (Health services for children in Germany, Austria, Grat Britain and Denmark, in ‘Soziale Welt’, 2000) and working paper together with M. Maucher Mütter zwischen Kinderbetreuung und Erwerbstätigkeit. Institutionelle Hilfen und Hürden bei einem beruflichen Wiedereinstieg nach einer Kinderpause (Mothers between child care and employment. Institutional support and barriers in case of re-entry into the labour market after childbirth, MZES, no. 18, 2000).