Children, Changing Families And Welfare States

‘As welfare states grow up, they begin to think more carefully about their future. Jane Lewis is showing them how best to do so. This stellar collection of articles by top European scholars combines creative thinking about the new social investment state with impressive empirical research on specific forms of public support for family work.’
– Nancy Folbre, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, US

The nature of the relationship between children, parents and the state
has been central to the growth of the modern welfare state and has long
been a problem for western liberal democracies. Welfare states have
undergone profound restructuring over the past two decades and families
also have changed, in terms of their form and the nature of the
contributions that men and women make to them. More attention is being
paid to children by policymakers, but often because of their importance
as future ‘citizen workers’. The book explores the implications of
changes to the welfare state for children in a range of countries.

Children, Changing Families and Welfare States:

• examines the implications of social policies for children
• sets the discussion in the broader context of both family change and welfare state change, exploring the nature of the policy debate that has allowed the welfare of the child to come to the fore
• tackles policies to do with both the care and financial support of children
• looks at the household level and how children fare when both adult men and women must seek to combine paid and unpaid work, and what support is offered by welfare states
• endeavours to provide a comparative perspective on these issues.

The contributors have written a book that will be warmly welcomed by scholars and researchers of social policy, social work and sociology and students at both the advanced undergraduate and post-graduate level.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Children in the Context of Changing Families and Welfare States
Jane Lewis

PART I: CHILDREN AS A SOCIAL INVESTMENT
2. The LEGO™ Paradigm and New Social Risks: Consequences for Children
Jane Jenson

3. An Agenda for Children: Investing in the Future or Promoting Well-being in the Present?
Ruth Lister

PART II: PAYING FOR CHILDREN
4. Child Benefit Packages in 15 Countries in 2004
Jonathan Bradshaw

5. Paying for the Costs of Children in Eight North European Countries: Ambivalent Trends
Ulla Björnberg

6. Paying for Children: Current Issues and Implications of Policy Debates
Fran Bennett

PART III: CARING FOR CHILDREN
7. Cultures of Childhood and the Relationship of Care and Employment in European Welfare States
Birgit Pfau-Effinger

8. From a Childcare to a Pedagogical Discourse – Or Putting Care in its Place
Peter Moss

9. The OECD and the Work/Family Reconciliation Agenda: Competing Frames
Rianne Mahon

PART IV: CHILDREN AND THE SEARCH FOR A WORK–LIFE BALANCE
10. Childcare in a Changing World: Policy Responses to Working Time Flexibility in France
Marie-Thérèse Letablier

11. Work Life Balance from the Children’s Perspective
Ute Klammer

12. Squeezed between Two Agendas: Work and Childcare in the Flexible UK
Diane Perrons

13. Men and Women’s Agency and Capabilities to Create a Work Life Balance in Diverse and Changing Institutional Contexts
Barbara Hobson, Ann-Zolfe Duvander and Karin Halldén

Index